CLEVELAND, Tenn. - With four players scoring in double figures and the entire team playing excellent defense, the Lee University women's basketball team posted its biggest Gulf South Conference victory of the season, defeating rival Union University 79-66 inside Walker Arena on Thursday evening. The win improved the Lady Flames record to 6-4 in conference play and 10-5 overall while the Lady Bulldogs dropped to 7-3, 12-6.
Coach Marty Rowe will send his team right back into action on Saturday afternoon when they host Christian Brothers University in another GSC contest which is slated to get underway at 2 p.m. It will be the opening game of a doubleheader against the Lady Bucs.
Both teams started slowly, and the action was tied 14-14 at the end of the first period. Union scored at the buzzer to claim a 32-31 lead at the halftime break. The final 20 minutes belonged to Lee. The home team outscored the Lady Bulldogs 27-20 at the third period stop and led by as much as 17 points with 2:47 remaining in the contest.
Anna Muhonen made 10-of-12 field goal attempts and 5-of-7 free throws in pacing Lee in scoring with 25 points. She was also the game's leading rebounder with eight. Muhonen left the contest after committing her fifth foul with over four minutes remaining in the game.
Abby McFarland made 3-of-4 triples and 9-of-10 charity tosses. Her 20-point performance was a career high. She also pulled down a career-high six rebounds as the Lady Flames outrebounded Union by a commanding 38-25 margin. Libby Privett nailed 7-of-8 freebies and finished with 12 points. Overall, Lee connected on a season-best 25-of-30 attempts (83%). Hannah Jones rounded out the double-digit scoring with 10 markers and claimed five rebounds.
For the game, Lee made 24-of-52 shots overall (46%) but hit just 6-of-18 triples (33%). One key factor in the victory was a 13-4 margin in second-chance points and a 28-22 advantage in points off the bench. The Lady Flames turned the basketball over 18 times but had 17 assists. Union committed 16 floor mistakes and had just 11 assists.
Lee's defense, led by Baylee Delbridge, held the Lady Bulldog's leading scorer Olivia Lee to 14 points. Delbridge also carded six rebounds. Nora Saffell had 13 points in the loss while Abigail Bryan hit a pair of 3-pointers and finished with 10 points. Saffell joined Lee with a team-leading five rebounds.
The Lady Bulldogs shot 41% from the field (24-of-59) but made just 5-of-20 triples (25%). The visitors also struggled at the free-throw stripe, canning 13-of-20 (65%).
Coach Marty Rowe's thoughts:
"Great effort by our team tonight. We competed extremely hard on both ends of the floor and that is what it takes to win a game against Union. We will enjoy winning tonight and then turn our attention to CBU because in this league you must be ready every day."
