CLEVELAND, Tenn. –A season high 12 made three-point shots for Christian Brothers University led the Bucs past the Lee University men's basketball team 81-71- on Thursday evening at Walker Arena. For the Flames it was their second loss in a row and only their second loss at home this season. With the loss the Flames fell to 9-4 overall and 7-4 in Gulf South Conference play. Noah Boler-Kyle led the Flames in scoring with 20 points while shooting 8-for-9 from the field.
Lee led early 4-3 but after that never led again as the Bucs took charge. CBU went on a 11-0 run over a four-minute section to extend the lead to 27-11. The Flames answered with their own 6-0 run using a zone to stymie the Bucs defense. CBU fought through and took the 33-32 lead into the halftime break.
The Flames came out with some urgency to start the second half. A couple of three-point shots and a couple of dunks forced CBU to take a timeout. Boler-Kyle then went on a 7-0 run by himself and got the score to just a one-point deficit at 42-41. However, the Bucs did not falter and quickly pushed the lead back out to 54-45.
The Flamed never got closer than six points the rest of the way and CBU made their free throws in the last two minutes two minutes to earn the 81-71 win.
Christian Brothers was led by Anias Futrrell who had 22 points and was 5-for-11 from the three-point arc. Christian Jones added 15 points and Jailen Anderson had 13 for CBU. The Bucs outrebounded the Flames 40-28.
Besides Boler-Kyle's 20 points, Beyuan Hendricks had 16 points while Tim Vaughn and Willie Walton each had nine.
Lee will look to bounce back against Union University on Saturday, January 13 at 4 PM at Walker Arena.
Coach Bubba Smith's Thoughts:
It is a disappointing loss. We made some steps in the right direction as we look to improve but you can't give a team 15 offensive rebounds and 13 more second chance points and want to win.
They outhustled us at certain points and we didn't finish plays. It is definitely a gut check to see what our team wants to be the rest of the way as there are no easy games in the GSC.
