The Lee men's basketball team suffered its first loss since Nov. 26 as it squandered a 12-point second half lead to fall to West Georgia, 70-66 on Thursday inside Walker Arena.
The Flames were seemingly cruising to a ninth straight win as they went up 12 with just under 10 minutes to play. From there however it was all Wolves as they jump started a 9-0 run with a steal and an emphatic dunk by Gerald Blount. The very next possession they would force Lee into another turnover and this time it was Michael Zabatakis slamming it home to swift the momentum of the contest.
Lee had a chance to tie down two with just 30 seconds remaining but split a pair of free throws before being called for a untimely intentional foul allowing the visitors to ice the game at the foul line.
After shooting the ball well in the first half behind 11 points and five assists from Kentrell Evans, the Flames struggled to make shots (8 of 26) and deal with the West Georgia pressure in the final 20 minutes and finished converting 22 of 52 (42.3 percent) from the field. The Flames drilled five triples in the first half but hit just one in the second half.
"The tougher team won tonight. The team that executed down the stretch won tonight. Defensively they do a really good job and they disrupted us," said head coach Bubba Smith. They suffered a tough loss at home on Monday and they came out tonight and wanted it more than we did in the second half."
Evans led the Flames with 14 points and was 4 of 6 from beyond the arc. Leander Ridgeway Jr. also provided a spark of the bench with 10 points. Colton Blevins added 10 points and nine rebounds.
"We've been fighting this for a few days. We have to fight the tendency to think you are where you need to be," added Smith. "When we started taking ownership and getting after it in practice we saw things change for us so we need to get back to those principles. I thought defensively we weren't very sharp in the second half and let them dictate the pace and get in the paint for easy buckets."
The Flames were guilty of 18 turnovers while West Georgia made 17 floor mistakes. The opportunistic Wolves swiped 12 steals in the contest. Both teams finished with 29 rebounds.
UWG was led by Tajah Fraley with 18 points on 8 of 10 shooting from the field. Zabatakis added 13 points and had five steals while big man Gerald Blount tallied 11 to go with six boards. The Wolves got inside and converted 14 of 21 shots (66.67 percent) in the second half and finished with 44 points in the paint.
Lee drops to 9-6 overall and 6-1 in the GSC while the Wolves improve to 10-5 and are now 5-2 in league play.
The Flames will look to start a new streak on Saturday as they host Alabama Huntsville at 4 p.m. The Chargers are coming off an 81-63 home win over Shorter on Thursday evening and are 11-4 and 4-3 in the GSC.
