VALDOSTA, Ga. – Quay Kennedy rejected back-to-back game-tying attempts to seal the Lee men's basketball team's historic first NCAA Tournament victory, 72-69 over Georgia Southwestern on Saturday night.
Jayce Willingham led the way for the Flames with 24 points on 6 of 11 shooting from the field and 10 of 11 from the foul line. Beyuan Hendricks added 12 points and six assists while Tariq Daughton sparked the Flames off the bench with 11 points in 19 minutes.
The Flames led by four at halftime, 30-26 but saw the Hurricanes go on a 13-0 run to start the second half before Willingham stopped the bleeding with an old fashion 3-point play as he darted to the lane and connected on a layup while absorbing the contact.
"We didn't come out in the second half ready to play but our guys responded after a timeout and Quay got a big chase down block for us to help us get going," said Lee head coach Bubba Smith.
From there the battle was on as the two teams exchanged blows throughout the second half. Lee would once again turn to Willingham to give them the lead for good with an acrobatic tip in and a foul with 3:18 to play. The sophomore connected on the foul shot to give Lee a 60-58 advantage.
The Flames would extend the lead to seven on a Makhi McGuire long-range shot but the Hurricanes kept battling back pulling within one with 19 seconds left and down by just two with the ball with 13 seconds left before Kennedy swatted away the shots and Georgia Southwestern's season.
"In postseason you hope to be in a position where you have a chance to win the game and we finished it off. I'm really proud of our guys and I'm really proud of Jayce. He really carried us, especially in the first half when we got into some foul trouble. I also thought our bench was really good tonight. Tariq, Noah (Boler), Makhi (McGuire) and Alex (Kelehear) stepped up an gave us meaningful minutes when we needed them most."
The Flames overcame 19 turnovers thanks in large part to forcing Georgia Southwestern into 17 of its own. Lee held a 35-27 edge on the glass, including an incredible 14 offensive boards.
"We got off to a rough start in the second half, but the timeout really settled us down," said Willingham. "We knew what we needed to do. This team has faced adversity like that all season, so we were ready for the moment and we were able to finish off the win and advance."
Donte Tatum led the sixth-seeded Hurricanes with 27 points on 10 of 17 shooting from the field before fouling out. Kahlon Whitney added 19 points and went 4 of 8 from the 3-point line. The Georgia club kept the pressure on the Flames the entire second half shooting 64 percent (16 of 25) in the final 20 minutes and 54.2 percent (26 of 48) for the game.
"We felt like this was a tournament team at the beginning of the year and our guys have continued to put in the work each week to get better. I'm really proud of them tonight and getting this first NCAA Tournament win is very special," concluded Smith.
The No. 3 seed Flames will now get a rematch with Gulf South Conference rival and No. 2 seed Alabama Huntsville on Sunday night at 8:45 p.m. Lee lost a close battle with the Chargers, 52-50 in the GSC Semifinals a week ago. No. 1 seed Flagler will take on red hot and fifth-seeded West Georgia in the other South Region Semifinal. The Wolves knocked off the host Valdosta State Blazers, 79-75.
