Box Score MONTEVALLO, Ala. – Coach Bubba Smith kept saying the best was yet to come for his Lee University men's basketball team after they dropped several close contests during the regular season. The Flames proved the veteran coach right on Monday evening in the quarterfinal round of the Gulf South Conference Tournament by upsetting second-seeded and host University of Montevallo, 69-65.

The thriller saw Lee guards Dayveun Anderson and Tylon Chatman nail three triples in the final minutes. Anderson hit a pair to put the Flames up 64-60 at the 1:25 mark. Running mate Chatman sank a big trey with 0:46 remaining, putting Lee up 67-62 and securing the victory.

The Flames, seventh-seeded in the eight-team field, advanced to the semifinals and will travel to Pensacola, Fla. and face third-seed University of West Florida on Thursday evening. Lee improved to 15-12 and Montevallo dropped to 21-8.

Willie Walton paced the Flames in scoring with 17 points. He also had five rebounds as Lee outrebounded the Falcons 33-29. Anderson, in one of his better efforts of the season, made 3-of-5 triples and tallied 16 markers. He also went inside for five boards. Chatman warmed up late and made the only triple he attempted. He totaled 13 points. Ben Ritger came off the bench to grab six rebounds and tallied six points.

Overall, the Flames shot a solid 48% from the field (25-of-52). Converting the key triples, the winners made 10-of-28 (36%) but struggled from the line, hitting 9-of-16. The Lee defense forced 16 floor mistakes and were guilty of 13.

The Falcons also shot a respectable 46% overall (25-of-55). The home squad converted 7-of-19 3-pointers (37%) and hit 8-of-13 freebies. Jaylen Curry was the Montevallo leader with 19 points. Devon McKinnon had 14 points, and Derek Moore added 12 points and led his team with six rebounds. Brandon Fussell rounded out the double-digit scoring with 10 points.

Coach Bubba Smith's thoughts:
"I'm really proud of our guys tonight. I thought we responded to every run they made and made some big plays down the stretch. We talked about building road toughness headed into last weekend at Union and Christian Brothers and I thought those games played a big part in our team's confidence tonight. We wanted to extend our season another 40 minutes and we did that tonight."