The Lee men's basketball team suffered a 64-63 setback to West Georgia on Friday night Walker Arena. Trailing by one in the final moments the Flames had several point-blank shots to win that rimmed out giving the Wolves the opening game of the weekend Gulf South Conference Series.

"After getting a stop on the defensive end we liked keeping the ball in Beyuan's (Hendricks) hands and not using a timeout," said Lee head coach Bubba Smith. "We had some chances at the rim but let me be clear this game was not lost in the final seconds. We lost this game in the first 30 minutes and give West Georgia credit for that. They were more physical, and we didn't match their intensity.

The Flames trailed by one, 26-25 during a defensive battle in the first half. Lee shot 38.8 percent for the contest but canned 43 percent from the 3-point line and were an efficient 16 of 19 from the foul line. The Wolves hit at a 43.6 percent and were 10 of 11 from the charity stripe.

Lee battled back after falling behind, 49-39 with 11:30 remaining in the contest. The Flames went on a 21-9 run to pull even at 58 with 3:18 left on a Quay Kennedy free throw.

West Georgia's Jalen Sasser sealed the game with an 18-foot jumper with 54 seconds left. Lee's Michael McGuirk darted to the rim but his lay in just rimmed out. McGuirk would make up for the miss however swiping a steal with 16 seconds left to set up the last shot opportunity.

McGuirk had 11 points and nine rebounds to lead the Flames. Hendricks chipped in 10 and Jayce Willingham added nine. Noah Boler and Makhi McGuire both finished with eight.

Kadiem Jones played all 40 minutes for the Wolves and led them with 14 points and five rebounds. Deng Nhial also went the distance and had 11 points. Jalen Sasser sparked West Georgia off the bench with 12 points and six rebounds in 19 minutes.  

"We've got to be better tomorrow if we are going to split this series," added Smith. "We need to match their intensity but more than that we need to get back to playing better defensive technique. We had too many miscues on the defensive end tonight and that's partly on us and also credit to what West Georgia was doing. I have to be better at putting our guys in a position to win and compete and I think we will respond and come ready to play tomorrow."

The loss drops the Flames to 9-3 while West Georgia makes it four-straight victories to get back to .500 at 7-6.  The two teams will wrap up the series on Saturday at 3 p.m.