CLEVELAND, Tenn. –The Lee University men's basketball team shot 55% from the floor to help lead them to a rout over Shorter University on Sunday afternoon at Walker Arena. Lee scored 40 points in the first half and 48 in the second half on the way to an 88-69 win. Beyuan Hendricks once again led the way with 25 points, nine assists, and four rebounds. Tim Vaughn and Zach Gray each added 13 points in the win.
Once again, the Flames started the game quickly using the three-point shot to build the lead. At the 11-minute mark, Lee went on an 8-0 run and pushed it out to 23-8 holding Shorter scoreless for almost four minutes. However, the Hawks responded their own 10-0 run to climb right back into the contest at 23-18.
Hendricks didn't let the run phase him as he had two assists to Vaughn and Makhi McGuire and then hit his own three point shot to make it 30-18 less than a minute after Shorter had their run. The Flames kept the pressure up and led at the break 40-27.
The second half starter much like the first half with another run by Lee. They started the second period with a 11-4 run and pushed the lead out to a 18-point margin and forced a timeout from Shorter. The timeout didn't help Shorter as Lee scored five more points and made it a 23-point lead and the Hawks never threated after that.
Lee was 34-for-62 from the field and 12-for-22 from the three-point arc in the win. They held Shorter to shooting just 30% from long range. The Flames had 22 assists to just eight turnovers while forcing 16 turnovers from the Hawks.
Lee will be off until January 2, 2024, when they will head to the Magnolia State to face the Mississippi College Choctaws in Clinton, Mississippi.
Coach Bubba Smith's Thoughts:
"We shared the ball very well. It wasn't quite the season high, but we did well passing the ball on made buckets. Tonight, offensively we were good. We still need to get better defensively, and we know that. We will look at that after the break."
When we have this window of time, it gives us time especially the coaches to look back at the last four or five games and really dig into the details of where we need to get better. We told the guys that we are winning games, but we are still getting exposed in some areas. If we aren't clicking offensively, we will need our defense to step up to help us win games."
