Cheeks’ 12 points leads Lee to second-place tying victory
From college reports
Leading from start to finish and getting a break when North Alabama upset Valdosta State, the Lee women’s basketball team moved into a tie for second place in the Gulf South Conference standings with an impressive 60-44 win over visiting West Georgia.
The Lady Flames are 14-6 in the GSC standings and 19-7 overall. Valdosta State also stands at 14-6. Lee closed out its regular home season and celebrated Senior Day. The Lady Flames will hit the road for two challenging contests. Their first stop will be at conference-leading West Florida (16-4) on Thursday and then they will move back up to close out the regular season in what could be a showdown against Valdosta State on Saturday.
Former Sonoraville High standout Carrie Cheeks had 12 points to lead Lee’s balanced scoring. She also pulled down eight rebounds. Lindsey Roddy finished with 10 markers and four assists. Taylor Boggess gave the Lady Flames a lift by nailing three 3-pointers in four attempts for nine points. Haley Cornellison had six points and tied Cheeks for top rebounding honors with eight. Abby Bertram added seven points and four assists, while Erin Walsh also totaled seven points.
“We made a couple of adjustments at the beginning of the third period,“stated coach Marty Rowe after the victory. “We went to a high-low offense, which we have not shown a lot and it paid dividends. Our overall team effort was excellent. In fact, it was one of the best of the year. Now we just need to take this into our final two regular season games.“
The Lady Flames outscored the Wolves 22-9 in the third quarter and led by as much as 24 points before the Wolves made a mild comeback after the contest was decided. “It was not one of our better shooting games, but defensively I thought it was one of our best,“declared Rowe.
Lee’s defense held the Wolves to only 29 percent shooting from the field. They did improve to 31 percent from beyond arc and managed 11-of-15 free throws. Lee shot 34 percent from the field and converted 7-of-26 3-pointers. They were awarded only nine freebies and canned seven.
The Lady Flames defense forced 18 West Georgia turnovers and committed only 11. They dished off 13 assists and won the rebounding battle 45-35.
In other recent college basketball news:
Cheeks scores 15, but Lady Eagles fall at Bluefield
No. Reinhardt came painfully close to winning the Appalachian Athletic Conference regular season championship outright, but the Lady Eagles fell in overtime, 54-51, to Bluefield Saturday afternoon in Bluefield, Va.
The Lady Eagles led 42-36 heading into the fourth quarter, and RU led by nine after a 3-pointer from Jada Hubbard early in the period. A steal and layup by Sara Byers helped RU keep Bluefield at arm’s length, making the score 47-42 with just over three minutes to go. However, those would be the only five points that the Lady Eagles 23 scored in the period as RU went 2-of-8 from the field and 0-for-2 from the free-throw line over the 10 minutes.
Still, Reinhardt’s defense nearly pulled out the win as the Lady Eagles led 47-45 with 5.5 seconds to go. However, a lay-up at the buzzer sent the game to overtime tied, 47-all.
Bluefield led 52-49 after a 3-pointer in overtime, but Danielle Pray made a pair of free-throws with just over a minute to go to make it 52-51. After a Bluefield turnover, the Lady Eagles had a chance to win, as RU went to the free-throw line with 2.1 seconds left. Unfortunately, both free-throws bounced off the iron and didn’t drop through. Bluefield made a pair of free-throws with 0.9 to go to stretch the lead up to three, and a desperation 3-pointer at the final horn bounced off the side of the iron to give Bluefield the win.
Former Sonoraville High standout Rebecca Cheeks finished with a team-high 15 points.
The Lady Eagles share the AAC regular season championship with Milligan, with the Buffaloes earning the conference’s first automatic bid to the NAIA National Championship via tiebreaker. Still, the Lady Eagles were picked to finish in a tie for seventh in the AAC regular season standings, and RU spent all of 2016-17 proving everyone wrong. The program has already set a record for wins in a season with 26 and earned the pro- gram’s first-ever regular season championship.
The Lady Eagles will be back in action Thursday at the AAC Championship in Kingsport, Tenn. RU will open play in the quarterfinal round against the winner of the matchup between Truett McConnell and Montreat in Wednesday’s first round.