CLEVELAND, Tenn. –Strong defense from the Lee University men's basketball team led to a 82-64 win over Delta State University on Sunday afternoon. The Flames held the Statesmen to their lowest scoring total of the season and led wire-to-wire in their second Gulf South Conference win of the season.
 
Sophomore Tylon Chatman once again paced the Flames as he had career highs in points, assists, and rebounds. Chatman had 16 points on 5-of-7 shooting while also going 4-for-5 from the free throw line. He led the Flames with six rebounds and six assists with only one turnover in the win.
 
Lee scored the first four points of the game and never looked back. Early in the first half, the Flames went on a 12-0 run over 4:42 to make it a 19-4 game. After DSU snapped the skid, Lee continued to apply pressure and pushed it out to 23-7. The Flames never let DSU get closer than eight points the rest of the first period and led 43-32 at the break.
 
Tariq Daughton and Noah Boler-Kyle came out strong for Lee in the second half and used an 11-2 run to start the second half to make it a 54-35 lead. DSU did not recover from that and never got it closer than 15 points the rest of the game. The lead ballooned out to as many as 20 points before Lee got the 18-point win.
 
Eight players scored for the Flames with four in double figures. Chatman had 16 points to lead the way while Boler-Kyle had 15. Daughton added 13 points and Willie Walton had 11.
 
The Flames had a season high 21 free throws made of 29 attempts. They held the Statesmen to just 36% shooting in the contest. DSU had two players score43 of their 64 points. Keithean Brooks ahd 21 while Jesse Washington had 22.
 
Lee will head to West Tennessee next week for two games. They will take on Union University on Thursday, January 16 and Christian Brothers University on Saturday, January 18.
 
Coach Bubba Smith's Thoughts:
 
"We saw what our team is capable of today. They had a lot of joy on the court. Our team defense was the best it has been all year. We know DSU is capable of making runs and so we couldn't relax.
 
We saw players step up that have struggled this year. One of the challenges after the Mississippi College win was to continue to be players that want the ball and want to score and we got that tonight."