The Lady Flames ended West Florida's two-game win streak and extended their own to two straight with a 60-51 defeat of the visiting Argonauts. Lee improves to 11-3 overall and are 4-2 in the Gulf South Conference (GSC). West Florida drops to 8-4 and 3-2.
The Argonauts carried a 32-28 lead into the halftime break, but the Lady Flames evened the score at 44-44 heading into the final 10 minute period. Lee posted 16 of the game's final 23 points to secure the win.
"Defensively, we had more energy in the second half," admitted Lee head coach Marty Rowe. "Maddie Long and Nicky Widenski gave us a huge lift. They were so good and so active defensively."
Long made 5-for-6 from the field on her way to a team-leading 14 points. The redshirt-freshman added four rebounds, two steal and a blocked shot. Erin Walsh and Carrie Cheeks gave the Lady Flames three double-digit scorers with 10 each. Cheeks tallied seven rebounds and Walsh pulled down six. Widenski recorded five rebounds with four of those on the defensive end.
Lee was 22-for-51 (.431) in the game, but made just 4-of-17 (.235) 3-pointers. West Florida canned 17-of-51 (.333) attempts in the game after blistering the nets for 44-percent (11-for-25) in the first half. The Argos took nine shots from behind the arc and made three.
"West Florida came after us in the first half and we didn't respond well," added Rowe. "We let them dictate pace and dictate what we did in the half court. Once we settled down and became engaged defensively, I felt the game shifted in our favor."
The Lady Flames scored 30 points in the paint to UWF's 16 and the Lee bench outscored the West Florida bench 22-5.
West Florida was led by Shami Goodman with 22 points. Courtney Meyer and Halee Nieman tied for the team lead with six rebounds each. Nieman also dished out five assists.
The Lady Flames continue their stretch of four games in seven days with two road games this weekend. Lee first travels to Montevallo, Ala., for a 3 p.m. EST appointment with the University of Montevallo on Saturday before heading to Livingston, Ala., to face West Alabama Monday evening.
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