BIRMINGHAM, Ala. – The Union Bulldogs broke up a tie game with a 23-14 fourth quarter edge to top the Lee women's basketball team, 76-68 on Sunday afternoon in the Gulf South Conference Women's Championship.

The Bulldogs claimed the program's seventh title in nine years of eligibility while the Lady Flames advanced to the program's fourth title game but fall to 1-3 on Championship Sunday. Each loss coming at the hands of Union.

Lee held a 60-57 advantage with 6:35 to go before the Bulldogs closed on a 19-8 run to end the battle. Macy Woodworth led the Lady Flames with 19 points and had six rebounds. Haley Schubert worked around foul trouble and poured in 17 while Mallory Hampton also scored 17 to go along with four rebounds and four assists. All four players were named to the GSC All-Tournament team.

The Achilles heal for the Lady Flames was an uncharacteristic poor shooting day from outside. Lee converted just 1 of 13 from beyond the arc despite getting many quality looks. Another issue for the Lady Flames was turnovers. Lee committed 18 and the Bulldogs made the most of those opportunities with 31 points.
Shanique Lucas had 15 points, five rebounds and four assists for Union as she was named the Tournament's Most Outstanding Player. Samariah Thompson led the Bulldogs with 16 points. Lauren West tallied 15 big points off the bench and hit a couple of crucial triples.

"We had a bunch of opportunities, but we didn't take advantage of those opportunities. I think we had some good looks but you're not going to beat Union making one three. And we turned it over too much. The margin for error is so small against Union. There guards got some offensive boards and they converted off of our turnovers. It's little things like that make the difference," said Lee women's basketball coach Marty Rowe. "I thought overall we had a good weekend. We played great yesterday and I thought we did some good things today. It was a quick turnaround against a good team. They pressure you most of the game so that can be tough on short rest, but I thought they also had some people off the bench step up. In games like this usually it's an unsung hero that rises to the occasion. We have a chance though to learn from it and keep playing next week so we need to stay hungry and I think we can make some noise in the region."

Union jumped out to an early 11-point lead promoting Coach Rowe to call an early timeout. After trailing by nine at the end of the first the Lady Flames battled back to cut the deficit to six at halftime, 40-34 and took a one-point lead 54-53 into the fourth quarter.

The Lady Flames earned the No. 4 seed in the South Region and will open the NCAA D2 National Tournament on Friday against the No. 5 seed Lynn University at 7:30 p.m. Tampa is the No. 1 seed in the region and will host the opening round, second round and region final. Tampa will play Tuskegee (No. 8 seed), Eckerd (No. 2 seed) will play Nova Southeastern (No. 7 seed) and Union (No. 3 seed) will square off with GSC rival Valdosta State (No. 6 seed). 

If Lee wins on Friday they will play the winner of Tampa/Tuskegee on Saturday at 7:30 p.m. Fans can listen to the action on Mix 104.1 and watch the games by visiting the links at leeuflames.com