MONTGOMERY, Ala. – Despite 20 points from Quay Kennedy the Lee men's basketball team fell on the road at Auburn Montgomery, 68-61 to open 2022.
The Flames had won their last two games before the Christmas Break in decisive fashion over Valdosta State and Alabama Huntsville, fbut the Warhawks outlasted the Flames in the final minute.
PJay Smith, fresh off back to back GSC Freshman of the Week honors, drilled triple with 1:12 remaining to tie things up at 59 but AUM's Sam Youngblood answered the shot with a 3-pointer of his own with 43 seconds left. From there the Warhawks came up with defensive stops and salted the game away at the foul line.
Kennedy's 20 points led the way for the Flames as he went 3 of 6 from beyond the arc. Jayce Willingham added 12 and Jason Landman posted 11. Smith came off the bench to score seven. Beyuan Hendricks dished off six assists.
"Tonight, was disappointing and the result typically goes to the team that deserves to win. We didn't deserve to win tonight, and AUM did," lamented Lee head coach Bubba Smith. "They made tougher plays down the stretch that we did, and their effort was better than ours over the course of the game. That's my fault because it's my job to make sure our team plays and competes to our potential each night."
The Warhawks held their largest lead of the game at 10 with 1:49 left in the first half but the Flames closed on a 7-0 run to pull within three at 31-28. The second half was back and forth and played within a six-point window until the final 30 seconds.
"I thought we showed some fight and toughness in stretches but most of the night we wanted things to be easy. We have to do a better job responding the right way when things don't go our way and those nights are going to happen," added Smith. "At the end of the day, our league is unforgiving. We can beat anyone on a given night, but also lose to anyone if we don't show up and compete for 40 minutes. But credit to John and his team, they wanted it more than we did and deserved to win."
Lee shot 45 percent from the field and an efficient 8 of 18 (44 percent) from the 3-point line but cashed in just 5 of 11 from the charity stripe. AUM connected on 48 percent from the field, went 4 of 9 from deep and were 12 of 16 from the foul line, including 4 for 4 in the final minute.
Auburn Montgomery was boosted by the sharp shooting of Youngblood, who played all 40 minutes and finished with 20 points, going 8 of 11 from the field and 4 of 6 from the 3-point line. Jeremiah Bozeman scored 13 points and added eight rebounds, James Graham delivered 13 points, six boards and game-high six blocks. Isaiah Hart gave the home team four players in double-figures with 10. All four players played over 36 minutes as AUM used just seven players in the contest.
The loss ends a modest two-game winning streak and sets the Flames back to 7-5 and an even 3-3 in the GSC. Auburn Montgomery gets its first conference win of the season to improve to 1-4 and are now 4-9 overall.
The Flames will get back to work on Thursday as they make the short trip down to Rome, Ga. to tangle with rival Shorter at 8 p.m.
