The Lee men's basketball team exacted some revenge on West Alabama as the Flames used a dominating second half to claim a 69-58 win over the Tigers in front of a packed house at Walker Arena on Saturday evening.

The Flames have now won five straight with the last loss coming at West Alabama back on Jan. 18. Lee improves to 18-4 overall and remain in first in the GSC with a 13-2 mark. The Flames are the first team to secure a spot in the GSC Championship and are a perfect 11-0 at home this season.

West Alabama (17-6, 10-5) threw the first punch of the game scoring the first six points while jumping out to a 22-10 advantage with 8:11 left in the opening half.

From there however it was all Flames as the home team electrified the crowd by closing the half on a 15-5 run capped off by a corner 3-ball by Ryan Montgomery with seven seconds left in the half.

The second half was much of the same. Quay Kennedy tied things up with a jumper in the paint to tie things up before Kentrell Evans stole the ball and went coast to coast to give the Flames a lead at 29-27 they would never relinquish. Lee outscored the Tigers 44-31 in the second half.

Montgomery finished with 19 points and nine rebounds while senior point guard Parker Suedekum posted 19 points and had five rebounds. Suedekum also limited West Alabama All-GSC guard LaJuan Hardy to just 12 points on 4 of 11 shooting.

In what has become a staple of any Lee game this season, Montgomery brought the crowd to their feet with another electrifying break away dunk with 8:10 remaining in the game. The slam came after Montgomery picked the pocket of the West Alabama guard near midcourt.

"We obviously wanted this one real bad after losing at their place earlier in the year and last year in the (GSC) tournament," said Suedekum. "Most people consider Hardy the best guard in the league, I think he's a great player but I just wanted to prove that I can play at that level. Our crowd was awesome tonight and no matter how we are playing they always bring the energy and we felt that tonight."

The Flames shot 18 of 32 (56.3 percent) from the field and 4 for 10 from beyond the in the second half to pull away from West Alabama. For the game Lee connected on 46.4 percent from the field. The only negative was a rare off night at the foul line, hitting just 11 of 20 (55 percent). 

Kennedy registered nine points for the Flames and was active on the glass with 10 rebounds to go along with four assists. Evans pitched in nine points and had a pair of helpers.

"Ryan and Parker played outstanding tonight for us," said Lee head coach Bubba Smith. "Seniors play with a sense of urgency because there's limited time left and we saw that fight and determination tonight from those two. We missed some shots early but we brought the defensive intensity all night long and that helped us pull away in the second half. I think this team is special. We just play with an unselfishness and tonight was good team win and our guys were ready to play. I'm looking forward to this final stretch of regular season games and getting into postseason play."

Ricky Dunnaway made life difficult for the Flames down low as he scored a game-high 23 points and grabbed 11 rebounds. Hardy was the only other Tiger in double-figures with 12 and six boards. 

The Flames will wrap up the home portion of the regular season next week as they host West Georgia on Thursday at 8 p.m. before entertaining Auburn-Montgomery on Saturday at 7 p.m.