CLEVELAND, Mississippi – The Lee women's basketball team completed a long and tough road trip with a 56-46 victory over host Delta State University on Saturday afternoon. The Lady Flames improved to 20-4 overall and continued to lead the GSC standings with an 18-2 mark. The Lady Statesmen dropped to 11-14, 10-11.
Playing without All-American guard Haley Schubert (concussion protocol), sophomore guard Haylee Johnson tallied 16 points and was a perfect 4-of-4 from the free-throw line. Macy Woodworth turned in a solid 17-point effort and grabbed eight rebounds. Mallory Hampton followed with 14 points and was 4-of-4 from the charity stripe.
Overall, the Lady Flames connected on 13-of-14 charity tosses, many down the stretch in preserving the lead. Mia Hurst rounded out the Lee scoring for the afternoon with nine points.
"I can't say enough about this group today. We showed a lot of guts down the stretch and really got a great win at a tough place," said Coach Marty Rowe in praising the effort of his Lady Flames. "You do not grow as a team during easy times, your biggest growth opportunities come in stressful situations. We grew as a team today!"
The Lady Flames grabbed a 13-8 lead at the end of the first period and continued to hold a slim 27-21 lead at the half. The margin was trimmed to four points after three periods (41-37), and Delta State pulled within two points before Lee was able to pull out the key victory.
Camryn Davis was the only Lady Statesmen to finish in double-figure scoring with 18 points. She made 8-of-16 shots from the field and a pair of free throws. Alanna Smith and Dakiya Toney led the Delta State rebounders with six apiece while Smith also had seven points.
The Lee defense forced the Lady Statesmen into 20 turnovers and scored 17 points off of those floor mistakes. On the other hand, the Lady Flames took care of the basketball with just 13 turnovers against a tough Delta State defense.
Lee returns to Walker Arena and will host Shorter University on Thursday at 6 p.m. before hitting the road again and traveling to Carrollton and facing West Georgia next Saturday afternoon at 2 p.m.
