CLEVELAND, Tenn. - The Lee University women's basketball team proved again on Thursday evening that it doesn't matter who enjoys the lead for the biggest part of the game, but who finishes on top at the end. For over 35 minutes of the Gulf South Conference contest against visiting University of West Florida, Lee trailed the Argonauts then came alive in the final five minutes to pull out a thrilling 67-64 victory.
Lee expects another hard-fought conference battle on Saturday afternoon when they host another GSC rival in Valdosta State. The doubleheader action is slated for a 2 p.m. first tip.
After dropping a pair of road games, the Lady Flames returned to Walker Arena and trailed 15-10 at the end of the first quarter and 35-29 at the end of the first half. The Argos outscored Lee by a single point in the third frame and led 54-47.
Anna Muhonen, who was held scoreless in the first half, finally came alive in the final quarter and the Lady Flames outscored the visitors 20-10 to pull out the exciting win. The senior continued her streak of scoring in double figures in each game as she tallied 12 points and had a team-leading eight rebounds plus coming up with four key blocks.
Abby McFarland came on in reserve and knocked down a pair of triples and was 4-of-4 from the charity stripe in tallying 12 points. Bailey Burgess nailed 3-of-4 triples and put 10 markers on the board while Libby Privett had eight points and Kara Williams finished with seven and added three assists.
The Lady Flames shot better from beyond the arc, 8-of-19 (42%) than they did overall 19-of-49 (39%). Lee was awarded 29 free throws and converted 21. It was not a clean game as the Lady Flames turned the basketball over 19 times to just 13 assists. The Argos had 15 floor mistakes and 10 assists.
Graduate student Amelia Bell paced West Florida with a double-double, 20 points and 10 rebounds. Isabel Grimes finished with 11 points and Maddy Rendall totaled 10 points. The Argos made 20-of-59 shots from the field (34%) and were able to can only 7-of-26 treys (27%). They were awarded 23 freebies and canned 17. Lee outrebounded the visitors 36-31.
Coach Marty Rowe's thoughts:
"We hung in there during that first half and honestly just got outplayed. Give our team credit, we made some really big plays down the stretch on both ends of the court. We've got to compete at that level every possession, every night in this league."
