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Parker Suedekum drilled a 3-pointer with just two seconds remaining to lift the Lee men's basketball team to a thrilling 70-67 victory over West Florida on Monday evening from Walker Arena.

The Flames (6-5, 4-0) have now won five straight overall and remain unbeaten in Gulf South Conference play as they head into the Christmas Break. The loss drops Argonauts to 3-8 and 0-4 in league play.

Lee held a 17-point lead with 8:29 remaining in the first half but the Argonauts would not go away as they cut the deficit to 12 at the break and held a four point lead with 3:08 remaining in the second half.

Suedekum would hit a couple of free throws to tie things up at 65 with 1:08 remaining. West Florida called a timeout and promptly scored on a layup by Jon Brown with 51 seconds left. The Flames fired right back 10 seconds later as Ryan Montgomery got into the paint and tied things up at 67.

The Lee defense buckled down to get a stop as Cody Jones secured a rebound off a West Florida missed 3-pointer to set up Suedekum's heroics.

Coach Bubba Smith elected to not a call a timeout and play in the flow of the offense and the decision paid huge dividends. "I thought in the final moments of the game we executed really well. We got a bucket and then stop and with the shot clock off we elected to go even though we had one timeout and decided to play through the ball screen there with Parker. We felt confident he would either make the shot or make the right play and he did what good players do and made a big shot in a big moment," said Smith.

Colton Blevins led the Flames with 15 points while Montgomery added another double-double with 12 points and 12 rebounds. Suedekum finished with 14 points while Quay Kennedy came off the bench to nail 3 triples to account for his nine points. Kentrell Evans dished off five assists in his 14 minutes of action.

"With about a minute left we called a timeout and Ryan, Cody and I spoke up as captains and said 'hey we need to make something happen'. Ryan made a big bucket for us and Cody got a rebound and I was feeling it a little bit so coach called my number and my teammates trusted me to make the play," said Suedekum. "They bothered us defensively most of the game so we felt like it was best to just go and not let them get set up and credit the coaches they called the right play and fortunately I was able to make a shot for my team."

The Flames were on fire in the opening 20 minutes as they shot 62.5 percent from the field and canned six 3-pointers to build a 39-27 advantage at the intermission. Lee would finish shooting 53.8 percent from the field.

West Florida was led by Rashaan Benson who tallied 21 points. Alassane Kah added 12 and Cameron Cox and Brown pitched in 10 each. After shooting just 31 percent from the field in the first half the Argonauts connected on 60 percent of their attempts in the second half to climb back into the contest.

Lee controlled the glass out rebounding the Argonauts 32-27. Both teams did plenty of damage inside with West Florida holding a 38-36 advantage on points in the paint.

The Flames will take nine days off for the Christmas Break before getting back to work to prepare for a New Year's Eve non-conference showdown at Trevecca Nazarene at 5 p.m.

"We will learn a lot from this game. We took a few steps back, especially defensively in the second half," noted Smith. "I thought we got a little fatigued and that showed on both ends of the court. The break will be good for us and it will allow us to get healthy. After a 1-5 start we really had to dig deep and grind to take some big steps forward and that required us to expend a lot of energy so our guys are ready for a few days off. We just need to keep improving and getting better each day in practice. I'm excited to see where we can go."