The Lee men's basketball team outscored the visiting Montevallo Falcons by 18 points in the second half to blow open a close game at the half and secure a 73-57 win on Monday inside Walker Arena. The victory marked the 100th for head coach Bubba Smith on the sidelines for the Flames.
The Flames trailed by two, 26-24 in the first half before exploding for 49 second half points. Josh Lowe led a balance scoring attack with 16 points on 5 of 6 shooting from the field while swatting away four shots. Jayce Willingham added 14 and eight rebounds. Makhi McGuire chipped in 11 points and Beyuan Hendricks posted 11 points and five assists.
Lee's perimeter defense made life difficult for the Falcons talented backcourt. Braxton Bertolette entered the game coming off a school record nine 3-pointers in a win over UAH but McGuire and the Flames limited him to just 4 of 14 shooting and 0 of 4 from the 3-point line. For the contest Montevallo shot just 36.7 percent from the field.
"I watched a lot of film and our coaching staff put together a good gameplan to try and defend them tonight," said McGuire. "I really just tried to buckle down and play relentless defense and as a team we were able to do that and that led to some transition offense as well."
The Flames shook off some rust in the first half after having not played since a Nov. 19 victory at West Florida. "I told George (Starr) on the radio don't be surprised if we get off to a bit of a slow start. That's a long time to not get back on the court and we came out a little bit flat and on our heels," said Lee head coach Bubba Smith. "We started to settle in and I thought we played really good complimentary basketball in the second half and got some good looks in the paint. It's a talented Montevallo team and we had to defend well today in order to shut them down."
MJ Jones led the Falcons with 11 points and seven rebounds and six assists. Mason Shifflet tallied 11 points and seven rebounds while Bertolette registered nine points.
The Flames scored 42 points in the paint and shot 53.7 percent (29 of 54) from the field in the contest.
Lee improves to 2-1 on the year after opening with conference play right out of the gate. The Falcons fall to 2-5 and are 1-3 in the GSC.
The Flames will now head on the road to renew their rivalry with Alabama Huntsville on Friday night at 8:30 p.m. They will wrap up the weekend road trip with a visit to West Alabama on Sunday at 5 p.m.
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