CLEVELAND, Miss. – Led by a career-high 29 points from Beyuan Hendricks the Lee men's basketball controlled the contest from start to finish in an impressive, 79-64 win at Delta State on Monday evening.

Hendricks shot 10-14 from the field and was on fire from the 3-point line hitting 6 of 9 to jump start the Flames offense. The junior also crashed the glass for seven rebounds. Lee had three other players reach double-figure scoring with Jayce Willingham adding 13 points, Michael McGuirk posting 12 and Quay Kennedy tallying 10 and seven boards.

The Flames jumped out to a 44-33 halftime lead and never relinquished the advantage throughout the second half. The Lee held the advantage on the glass to the tune of 34-27 and committed just eight turnovers.

"Good Starts have been really important to our season this year and we had a great start tonight," said Lee head coach Bubba Smith. "Our guys have responded well after tough losses, and they did again tonight. Delta State is a tough place to win, so really proud of our guys."

The Statemen cut the lead to four at 48-44 with 17:06 left in the game on a triple by Kasey Walker-Gregg but once again Henricks had the answer with a 3-ball of his own on the very next possession to extend the lead to seven. Delta State would draw no closer the rest of the way.

Smith went on to praise the play of his talented point guard, "Beyuan was huge tonight. He was do a game like this, and our team really fed off his performance and energy."

Maalik Cartwright led the Statesmen with 25 points and 11 rebounds. Cartwright was 10 of 15 from the field and did all of his damage inside the paint. Lee Cotton added 12 points for the home team.

"We felt like we had to defend the three-point line tonight and play assignment basketball. Our guys did a great job of getting their shooters off the line all night," added Smith.

The Lee defense limited the Statemen to just 29.4 percent (5 of 17) shooting from beyond the arc in the contest.

The win moves the Flames to 11-6 on the year and 7-4 in GSC play. Delta State falls to 7-12 overall and 6-7 in conference action.

The Flames will now head home for a three-game homestand beginning on Thursday night against rival Shorter at 8 p.m.