The Lee University women's basketball team advanced to the semifinal of the Gulf South Conference Women's Basketball Championship with an 88-78 defeat of West Georgia (16-12) Tuesday evening at Paul Dana Walker Arena.
The Lady Flames (23-6) placed five players in double-digit scoring. Carrie Cheeks and Erin Walsh led the way with 17 points each. Cheeks was 8-for-11 from the field and added five rebounds, while Walsh was 5-for-9 from behind the arc. Walsh also grabbed four rebounds and dished out four assists.
"It's hard to win this first round, because everybody is playing for their lives," said Lee head coach Marty Rowe. "We knew we were going to get West Georgia's best effort. I think we handled it well."
Shelby Brown ended the game one rebound shy of a double-double with 11 points and nine rebounds. Abby Bertram, Taylor Boggess and Haley Cornellison made three 3-pointers a piece. Bertram finished with 15 points, Boggess had 13 and Cornellison added nine more.
Maddie Long contributed five points to go along with a game-high nine assists. Tori Lentz rounded out the Lee scoring with a free throw.
Lee made 30-of-68 (.441) from the field and West Georgia was 27-for-56 (.482). The big difference came from behind the arc where the Lady Flames were 15-for-34 (.441) and the Wolves were just 4-of-11 (.364). West Georgia held an advantage at the free throw line. The Wolves converted 20-of-28 (.714) attempts, while Lee was 13-for-17 (.765).
The Lady Flames won the battle of the boards 38-29. Lee turned 16 offensive rebounds into 15 second-chance points. West Georgia garnered two second-chance points from nine offensive boards.
West Georgia was led by Aysha Harris' 27 points. Harris was 8-for-13 from the floor and made 11-of-12 at the charity stripe. Kayla Carter added 17 points and De'Ashia Jones had 14. Jessica Brown tallied 13 markers to go with a team-high seven rebounds.
The No. 4 seed Lady Flames will battle No. 1 seed Union University (26-3) on Saturday at 1 p.m. EST. On the other side of the bracket, No. 7 seed West Alabama upset second-seeded North Alabama, 70-65, and sixth-seeded West Florida beat No. 3 Valdosta State, 68-49.
"I'm really excited for our girls to go back to Birmingham for the third year in a row. Now I want to see if we can win a semifinal game," added Rowe.
The semifinals and final will be contested at the Pete Hanna Center at Samford University on Saturday and Sunday.
