CLEVELAND, Tenn. - Holding an opponent under 60 points for the fifth straight game resulted in an impressive five consecutive wins for the Lee University women's basketball team as they handed the University of West Florida a 67-52 defeat on Saturday afternoon inside Walker Arena.
The surging Lady Flames improved to 13-4 in GSC play and 19-4 overall. The visiting Argonauts dropped to 10-6, 14-8. Lee will enjoy some off time before returning to action on Saturday (Feb. 15) when they travel to Nashville and face Trevecca Nazarene University.
The Lady Flames trailed 16-14 at the end of the first quarter. The defense went to work in the second frame and held West Florida to eight points. At the same time Lee was putting 15 markers on the board and claiming a 29-24 advantage at the halftime break.
The lead continued to slowly grow in the third period as the Lady Flames held the Argonauts to 13 points and tallied 16 points to lead 45-37 at the third stop. The final period belonged to Lee as they outscored West Florida 22-15 in posting the key victory.
While the defense was standing tall, Haylee Johnson was continuing her outstanding play. She finished with 29 points, making 8-of-15 shots overall and 12-of-14 important free throws. Johnson also led her team in assists with eight and rebounds with seven.
Mia Hurst came up with some big plays on the offensive end. She hit three triples and tallied 15 points overall. When the Lady Flames started to pull away from the Argonauts, it was Bailey Burgess who connected on two big 3-pointers. She added one other shot from beyond the arc and tallied nine points.
Anna Muhonen had six rebounds as Lee won the battle of the boards 38-29. The defense forced the Argonauts into 20 floor mistakes and Kara Williams joined Johnson with three steals apiece. The Lady Flames outscored West Florida 26-20 in points in the paint and allowed the visitors only six offensive rebounds. Lee shot 41% from the field (22-of-54) and made 8-of-25 3-point attempts (32%). They marched to the line 18 times and made 15.
Bella Green paced West Florida in scoring with 13 points. Haidyn Pitsch and Delaney Trushel pitched in with 10 markers each. The Argonauts shot 35% from the field (18-of-51) and made 4-of-17 triples (24%) and hit 12-of-16 free throws.
Coach Marty Rowe's thoughts:
"This was a big weekend for our team. To be able to win today's game says a lot about the toughness and resilience of this group. West Florida is a tough defensive matchup and we did a really good job of defending and rebounding with urgency again. We are looking forward to having a few days off going into next Saturday's game. This will allow us to focus on some small details we need to continue improving on."
