Friday, March 02, 2012 (from Lee University – See Related Article)
The No.5 Lady Flames advance to the tournament final, taking on Belhaven University (Miss.), Saturday at 5 p.m. The top seed from the west division, the Blazers defeated Shorter University, 56-51, in Friday’s other semifinal game to advance to the championship matchup.
“I’m really proud of our team,” said head coach Marty Rowe. “Maybe we didn’t play great, but we played well enough and that’s all you have to do this time of year to advance. We’re excited and looking forward to get to play Belhaven tomorrow.”
Hollie German was once again the top performer for the Lady Flames in Friday’s contest. After scoring 27 points, Thursday, against William Carey, the sophomore guard tossed in 28 points to lead all scorers.
Angela Spann was the only other Lee player to score in double-figures, adding 12 points. Madison Lee came off the bench to grab a game-high seven rebounds.
Overall, the Lady Flames struggled shooting, knocking down 16-of-50 shots (32-percent). The Lee ladies took half of those shots from behind the arc, also hitting 32-percent from long range (8-of-25). The winning squad was sharp at the free throw line, hitting 17-of-21 charity tosses.
“We didn’t shoot great, but it has a lot do with how they defended us. They’re one of the toughest defensive teams in the conference and do a good job defending our penetration because they’re so athletic,” added Rowe.
“We were coming off beating them pretty bad at their place (71-41 on Feb.4), so we expected them to play really well. We did an awful good job of the little things late, though, and hit some big free throws.”
The Lions (19-13) outshot the Lee club, hitting 43-percent of their shots, 5-of-9 behind the arc, and knocking down 57-percent from the free throw line. Kaylyn Young led the Emmanuel squad with 16 points, with Caneisha Bell adding 10 markers. Emmanuel edged Lee in the rebounding column, 33-32.
The big difference came by way of turnovers, as Emmanuel committed 22 floor mistakes, leading to 23 Lady Flames’ points. The Lions were only able to produce nine points from 15 Lee turnovers.
With the win the Lady Flames move to 30-2 on the season, earning Rowe his fourth season of 30 wins in his eight-year tenure at Lee.