The Lee men's basketball team made it six straight wins as it punched its ticket the Gulf South Conference Semifinals with a 72-66 hard-fought win over West Florida on Tuesday evening inside Walker Arena.

Junior guard Beyuan Hendricks helped seal the win going 4 for 4 in the final minute of the game at the foul line to put away the Argonauts. The Baylor School product finished with 15 points and dished off eight assists.

"In the first half we were hitting our shots but in the second half those shots were falling, and we had to dig in and get defensive stops and got the ball down low to Jayce for some buckets in the post," said Hendricks. "When we get stops we can get up and down the court in transition and make things happen even when shots aren't falling."

The Flames stormed out to a 37-26 advantage at the half and built the lead up to 19 at 47-28 on 3-pointer by Michael McGuirk with 17:34 remaining in the game.
From there West Florida pounded the paint with Jackson Henningfield and fought back into the game. Henninfield ended with a game-high 27 points. Keyed by Henningfield's production the West Florida bench scored 41 points in the contest.

"You got to win and advance to move on this time of year. Nobody is going to ask you how pretty it was," said Lee head coach Bubba Smith. "We knew they were going to fight back and we had to be able to withstand that and are guys made plays down the stretch when we needed to have them."

PJay Smith showcased why he was named the GSC Freshman of the Year earlier in the day as he tallied 18 points on 4 of 6 shooting from the 3-point line and hauled in nine rebounds. Jayce Willingham stepped up with 16 points as he aggressively attacked the Argonauts in the post. Quay Kennedy, fresh off landing on the All-GSC First Team posted nine points and six rebounds to go along with a pair of blocks.

"PJay has been big for us all season. Inserting him into the starting lineup as made our team better and he has really freed up Beyuan to go make plays on the offense end because of how he defends and the matchups he draws. He's got a high basketball IQ and he's been a big difference maker for us this season," added Smith.

The Flames shot 51 percent from the field and went 8 of 22 (36.4 percent) from deep. West Florida converted 47.4 percent from the field but made just 2 of 14 (14.3 percent) from beyond the arc. Both teams pulled down 31 rebounds. Lee registered 15 assists and committed just 10 turnovers.

The Flames improve to 19-8 overall while West Florida ends its season at 18-11. This marks the third straight year the Flames have made it to the GSC Semifinals. Lee will look to punch the program's first berth in the GSC Championship game as it draws Union, a team it just defeated last Saturday, in the semifinals on Saturday in Birmingham, Ala. Union defeated Montevallo, 79-62.

"We know every game is do or die at this point and that's what makes it so exciting," said Smith. "Our guys just want to keep this thing rolling and we are playing with confidence and energy right now."