MONTEVALLO, Ala. – For the third straight game, a Lee men's contest has gone right down to the wire. The Flames dropped a cliffhanger to Valdosta State earlier in the week then came away with a thrilling win over West Florida on Thursday.
Host University of Montevallo tallied a 3-point bucket with 19 seconds remaining and then turned away two great looks by the Flames in the closing seconds to score a 68-67 Gulf South Conference victory on Saturday afternoon.
The Falcons found themselves down by two points after Parker Suedekum scored back-to-back baskets to force a timeout by the host club. After the break Montevallo went to the corner for a 3-point shot by Jamar Gilbert. It was his only trey of the game but gave the Falcons the deciding bucket.
After a timeout, the Flames came back with two great looks but a layup rolled off the rim with some two seconds remaining to secure the victory for Montevallo. Gilbert had only seven points in the contest but it was Chris Williams who carried the load the entire afternoon for the victors. He was 10-of-19 overall and 5-of-8 from behind the arc in finishing with 26 points. Deshawn Jones was 8-of-11 from the free-throw stripe and tallied 16 points. Jeremiah Curtis finished the double-figure scoring for the home club (12).
Suedekum led the Lee scoring with 15 markers and was 7-of-10 from the field. Chase Cullen did the majority of his scoring in the first half and tallied 12, while Colton Blevins was 6-of-7 from the field for 14 points.
Lee gave up 13 offensive rebounds in the hard-fought battle and lost the battle of the boards, 38-30. The Flames shot a solid 47 percent from the field and held the Falcons to 41 percent. The battle was dead-even in the paint (22) and on turnovers (16). Lee had 21 bench points to just five for Montevallo.
"Two costly turnovers in the final four minutes really hurt us," said coach Bubba Smith. "We still had two great opportunities to win. We are a young team and we will learn from this. We just have to go back, regroup and get ready for another tough game against West Alabama on Wednesday."
Said Smith, "Montevallo used the zone and we had not seen that much on film. We were still able to get some good looks but the shots just stopped falling." Overall, the Flames made 9-of-24 3-pointers (38 percent). The Falcons converted 6-of-17 including the game-winner. Lee was awarded only eight free throws and converted seven. Montevallo went to the line 16 times and canned 12.
The Flames had a 67-63 lead before a pair of turnovers helped the Falcons regroup and find a way to pull out the victory. Lee led 42-39 at the halfway point and were up by as much as eight points after a quick start in the opening minutes of the second stanza.
