JACKSON, Tenn. – Looking for a spark Lee men's basketball coach Bubba Smith shuffled his starting lineup and inserted senior Chase Cullen on Saturday afternoon against the Union Bulldogs. The tenacious forwarded rewarded him with 16 points and seven rebounds to lead the Flames to a big road victory over rival Union, 60-51.
In addition to Cullen junior Cody Jones canned four triples and grabbed five rebounds for the Flames who snap a brief two-game slide to improve to 12-8 overall and 7-6 in the GSC. In what always proves to be a battle Lee moves ahead in the all-time series, 17-16 against the Jackson club. Union falls to 9-12 and 3-10 in league play.
The two clubs exchanged blows in the defensive battle for much of the contest. The Flames held a slight 31-30 advantage in the first 20 minutes before clamping down defensively to hold the Bulldogs to just 21 second half points.
After a Pedro Da Silva layup the Bulldogs tied the game at 45 with 7:39 left before the Flames closed on a 15-6 run to end the contest. Ryan Montgomery's lay in put Lee up for good at 47-46 with 6:55 left on the clock. The sophomore from Chattanooga finished the game with eight points.
While shots were tough to come by for both teams Lee ended the night at 43.4 percent from the field while limiting Union to just 39.5 percent shooting from the floor. The Flames improved on their league leading opponents' field goal percentage and have now allowed teams to shoot just 40.3 percent per outing.
"I thought we played really inspired today, especially in the last 20 minutes," said a pleased coach Smith. "Defensively we were really good and we did a nice job of trapping the post. We knew they were going to try and throw it down low because of their size and I thought our guys executed the game plan well and kept them from getting into any kind of rhythm."
The Bulldogs were paced by 18 points from Tyree Boykin. Charlie Wilson added a game-high 12 rebounds to go along with nine points.
Both teams handled the ball well as Lee committed a season-low six turnovers while Union was guilty of just eight floor mistakes. The Flames crashed the glass for 31 rebounds while the Bulldogs corralled 28.
"We had some guys step up and have big moments for us throughout the night. Isaac Merian came in and gave us a lift after we got into foul trouble," added Smith. Merian scored six points and grabbed three rebounds playing in just his eighth game of the year.
"Chase was obviously really good for us tonight but down the stretch Ryan (Montgomery) stepped up big for us and that's what you love to see because it shows you what a true team win this was," concluded Smith.
The Flames are now in a three-way tie for fifth place (Christian Brothers, Delta State) in the jam packed GSC standings with seven games remaining. Coach Smith and his club will wrap up their grueling four-game road trip as they travel to down to No. 15 West Florida (Thursday) and No. 14 Valdosta State (Saturday) to square off with the two top teams in the conference next week.
