SE Tennessee News

The Lee University men's basketball team scored six points in the final minute to hold on and beat the University of West Florida 74-68 on Thursday evening in Walker Arena. In a game where Lee led for 35 minutes, they found themselves in a battle with the Argos. The Flames led by as many as 13 points and never trailed by more than two points in the win.
 
The Flames started quickly with a layup from Beyuan Hendricks and a three from Makhi McGuire. Another jumper from Pjay Smith and a four-point play from Jayce Willingham made it a 15-5 lead. West Florida settled into the game and went on a short run to close it at 17-9. Hendricks continued to shoot well in making his first two three-point attempts.
 
The two teams traded buckets as Lee pushed the lead to 31-18. The Argos didn't go away though as they went on a 7-0 run to close it to 33-25. UWF continued to make shots and cut the lead to 39-35. However, on the final possession of the half, Tariq Daughton hit a three-point shot as time expired to give the Flames a 42-35 point lead at the break
 
McGuire came out shooting in the second half, scoring five straight points for the Flames but Lee could not pull away as both teams scored eight points in the first four minutes of the half. The Flames then went cold from the floor. They did not score for over 4:30 minutes. UWF went on a 11-0 run and tied the game for the first time at 50-50. Smith finally stopped the bleeding with a layup on a pass from McGuire.
 
The Argos continued to be aggressive on defense and took their first lead of the game 54-52 with 10:39 left in the game and that forced a timeout from Lee. Both teams continued to make shots before Hendricks hit another three-point shot to give the Flames a 60-56 lead with 8:25 left in the game. UWF whittled the lead down to 64-63 with four minutes left before UWF tied it at 65-65 thanks to two free throws from Daniel Sofield. Willingham broke the deadlock with a free throw and then had a massive dunk to give the Flames the 68-65 lead with 1:30 left in the contest. Lee then committed a turnover and UWF's Latrell Tate made a layup and was fouled. He made the free throw and tied the game at 68-68. With just under a minute to play, Smith made a layup to give Lee a two-point lead. On the next UWF possession, Tate missed a jumper and Hendricks found Michael McGuirk on a fast break to give Lee a 72-68 lead with 30 seconds left. Then Hendricks stole the ball at midcourt and took it for a layup with ten seconds left to seal the win for the Flames.
 
UWF was 23-for-29 from the free throw line while Lee was 11-for-16 in the game. Willingham and Hendricks led the Flames with 17 points apiece. Smith added 15 as well. Lee shot 48% from the floor in the win and had 30 points in the paint.
 
Head Coach Bubba Smith was relieved to earn the win. "Glad to get the win. It wasn't pretty as we struggled at times. We never got into rhythm tonight. Beyuan really carried the team as he stepped up as a senior leader, he wanted the ball in his hand and he was able to score. Had too many silly turnovers that we will have to clean up. Mike McGuirk also did a lot of great things off the ball today. As well as we shot tonight the game shouldn't have been this close. But we closed it out at the end and talked well as a team and had a great final minute."

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