Orangeburg, S.C. –Giancarlo Valdez scored the game winning layup with 1.9 seconds left to give the Lee University men's basketball team a 74-72 win over Claflin University on Tuesday evening. The win moved the Flames to 4-0 on the season and ended the non-conference portion of the season with a road win. With the loss, Claflin fell to 2-3 on the year.
After an early lead for the Flames, the Panthers fought back to take the lead midway through the first half. The two teams traded the lead for the majority of the half. Claflin hit a halfcourt shot at the end of the first half to give the Panthers a 39-35 lead at the break.
The second half was the Noah Boler-Kyle show he led the Flames in scoring with 27 points. Every time the Flames got close to taking the lead, Claflin had an answer. Finally with about three minutes to go, Tariq Daughton hit a big three point shot to give Lee the lead.
In the last minute, Claflin pulled it to a tie at 69. Valdez then answered on the other end with a layup and was fouled. He hit the free throw to give Lee the 72-69 edge. John Whitehead III answered for Claflin with a big three to tie it again at 72-72 with 11 seconds left.
After a Lee timeout, Valdez found the lane again and scored a layup with 1.9 seconds left to give Lee the 74-72 lead. Claflin's last second heave from mid court fell short and Lee hung on for the win.
Boler-Kyle was dominant in the contest. He was 11-of-12 from the field in the win. He was 3-for-3 from long range and 2-of-3 from the free throw line. He snagged eight rebounds and had a block in the win.
Whitehead led Claflin with 24 points while Jailen Williams had 15. Zach Gray had 16 points off the bench for the Flames while Marlon Smith and Tariq Daughton had 10 points apiece. Valdez was one point away from a double-double. He had nine points and ten assists.
That was the final non-conference game for the Flames. After the Thanksgiving break, the Flames will head to Alabama to open conference play. They will take on the University of Montevallo on Thursday, December 5 at 8:30 PM.
Coach Bubba Smith's Thoughts:
"Really proud of how our team hung in there tonight and found a way to win. Claflin has only loss 4 games at home the last two years, so we knew it wasn't going to be easy.
I thought Zach stepped up and played a great game for us. He did so much and Gian did a great job at creating and finding cutters, as well as hitting a big shot at the end. Noah played like a senior is supposed to. He really put us on his back tonight and made some big plays as well.
We still have a ways to go defensively, but this group is competitive and will keep improving.
We could have folded late but we found a way to win against a good Claflin team."
