VALDOSTA, Ga. – Valdosta State University turned back a late charge by the Lee University women's basketball team, but back-to-back 3-point attempts failed in a 68-65 loss to the host Blazers at The Complex on Thursday evening. The defeat dropped the Lady Flames to 11-5 in GSC play and 15-6 overall while the Blazers improved to 8-7, 11-10.
The tough road trip does not get any easier for the Lady Flames on Saturday. They will move on down to Pensacola and will be pitted against the University of West Florida. The opening contest of a doubleheader is slated for a 3 p.m. opening tip.
Lee got off to a slow start and trailed 18-8 at the end of the first period. The Lady Flames came back and outscored Valdosta State 21-13 in the second quarter. The Blazers made a pair of free throws right before the halftime buzzer and owned a 31-29 lead at the break.
Valdosta State outscored Lee 21-17 in the third frame and claimed a 52-46 lead. In fact, the contest was tied only twice the entire evening. The Lady Flames came back and outscored the home club 19-16 in the fourth period but it wasn't enough to overcome the excellent free-throw shooting by the Blazers.
For the game, Lee shot 43% from the field (23-of-53) while Valdosta State was knocking down 58% overall (23-of-40). The Lady Flames made 9-of-22 triples (41%) while the Blazers connected on only 5-of-13 (39%). The difference came at the charity stripe where Valdosta State was excellent. They marched to the line 20 times and converted 17 (85%). On the other hand, Lee was awarded 13 trips to the free-throw line and connected on 10 (77%), a difference of seven points in the contest.
The hustling Baylee Delbridge paced Lee in scoring with 17 points. She made 5-of-10 field goal attempts, one 3-pointer and canned 6-of-7 free throws. Abby McFarland came off the bench and nailed 4-of-5 triples and finished the game with 14 points. For the first time this season, Anna Muhonen finished the game without reaching double-figure points. She had nine markers and paced her team in rebounding with seven. However, the Lady Flames were outrebounded 32-19.
The balanced Blazer attack saw Alina Martin make 7-of-8 freebies and finished with a team-high 13 points. Raeanne Eccleston was 4-of-4 from the line and tallied 12 points. Erin Whalen was a key factor in the win, finishing in double figures with 10 points and a team-leading nine rebounds. Kaci Demps also tallied 10 points and was a perfect 4-of-4 from the field.
Coach Marty Rowe's thoughts:
"To win on the road in this league you have to play at a much higher level than we did tonight. We again showed a lot of fight down the stretch but it's almost impossible to win when you get outrebounded by 13 to a team that shoots 58% from the field. It doesn't get easier for us Saturday but we will get some rest tonight and get back to work."
