MONTEVALLO, Ala. – The No. 25 Lee women's basketball team suffered a 66-60 setback to the Montevallo Falcons on Thursday evening to begin a three-game Gulf South Conference road trip.
Shots were tough to come by for the Lady Flames the entire evening as they went just 18 of 62 (29 percent) from the field. Junior guard Abby Bertram led the way with 18 points and canned three triples before departing in the final moments after landing awkwardly following a shot attempt.
Montevallo turned a one-point deficit at the half to a four point lead at the start of the fourth quarter. The home team hit 14 of 19 second half shots and shot 57.8 percent from the field for the game to claim the upset win over the Lady Flames.
Shyan Flack led the Falcons with a double-double of 13 points and 10 rebounds in the winning effort. Aaliyah Rice added 13 of her own while Nautika Philpot and Jennifer Andrew (11) made it four players in double-figures.
"Give them credit they took it to us and we weren't very good inside, offensively or defensively," said head coach Marty Rowe. "We missed a lot of good looks and that strains your defense. We just missed point blank shot after point blank shot and didn't rebound well and against a good team like Montevallo on the road you're not going to win."
The Lady Flames did manage to turn Montevallo over 20 times and scored 23 points off those miscues. Lee committed just 11. The Falcons held a 39-29 advantage on the glass.
Anna Woodford drilled three treys to finish with 11 points for the Lady Flames while Lindsay Roddy also tallied 11 points and had eight rebounds. Becca Cheeks finished with nine points in 17 minutes of action.
The loss drops the Lady Flames to 17-5 on the year and 11-3 in the GSC. Lee is now third behind Union and West Florida. The Falcons improve to an even 11-11 overall and 7-7 in league play.
"Some of our players are going through the grind of a long season for the first time," noted Rowe. "We have some young players who have to work past the fatigue and adjustments that other teams are making on them. We have to get right tomorrow because West Alabama is a good club and they came in here and won the other night so we have to execute better on Saturday if we're going to expect to be successful."
The Lady Flames will now head down to West Alabama on Saturday afternoon for a 3 p.m. showdown with the Tigers.
