PENSACOLA, Fla. – The long road trip back to the Lee campus will be fun and entertaining for the women's basketball team after it battled back from a slow start on Saturday evening and then saw a 3-point lead disappear in the final seconds of regulation that forced an overtime period.
The Lady Flames outscored host West Florida 9-5 in the extra period and escaped with a thrilling 69-65 victory. Lee trailed the rival Argonauts 20-8 at the end of the first period but fought back to cut the lead to 32-25 by halftime. Coach Marty Rowe's never-say-die club finally caught West Florida at the end of three quarters (45-45) when Mya Hurst tallied six straight points (including a 3) and Haley Schubert scored on a layup.
Lee took a 60-55 lead after Schubert had scored four straight points with 1:20 remaining in the contest but West Florida was not about to be denied. With just 19 seconds left, Jaclyn Jarnot hit a 3-pointer that sent the contest into the overtime period.
The Lady Flames quickly jumped on top in the 5-minute extra period. Sophomore Anna Muhonen hit a pair of free throws and a layup while junior Addison Smith connected on a jumper to put Lee up 66-64. Schubert iced the victory with a pair of free throws in the final seconds. Lee improved to 3-1 overall and more importantly 2-0 in GSC play. They will return home and face Trevecca Nazarene in a non-conference game on Thursday at 6 p.m.
"Gutsy," was the way Coach Rowe described his team's effort. "It was a tough performance by our team. Even after the slow start we just hung around and battled. Winning on the road is hard, especially winning both ends on this road trip against two really good teams. We still have a long way to go as a team, but the ability to find ways to win is certainly something we want to keep building on."
Schubert led the Lee scoring with 24 points. Mallory Hampton followed with 19 markers, making 7-of-12 shots from the field and 3-of-4 treys. She also had six rebounds and six assists. Muhonen added nine points and six rebounds. Smith was Lee's leading rebounder with nine. Schubert, Hampton, Hannah Garrett, Muhonen and Macy Woodworth all played with four personal fouls. All totaled, Lee was whistled for 29 fouls and West Florida 19.
The Argos were led by Zoe Piller with 19 points. Jarnot added 11 points and a team-leading nine rebounds. Haylee Luttrell also tallied 11 markers. West Florida shot 42% from the field while Lee made just 35%. The Lady Flames also made just 9-of-30 3s (30%) while holding the home team to 25%. Lee nailed 14-of-19 free throws while the Argos were able to hit just 17-of-33, an important factor in the loss. West Florida won the rebounding battle 45-37. Lee had 19 turnovers and the Argos 27.
