Dec. 15, 2008

Story courtesy of Lee (Tenn.) Sports Information Office 

CLEVELAND, Tenn. - In what will go down as one of Lee women's basketball biggest wins during coach Marty Rowe's tenure, the Lady Flames upset No. 1 ranked Union University 88-72 on Saturday evening in Walker Arena.

Coming into the contest, the Lady Bulldogs had won 46 straight regular-season games and were 13-0. Over the years the Lady Flames had never beaten Union in Walker Arena and stood at just 1-18 in the series.

But Lee showed no fear in jumping out to a 45-34 half-time advantage and never trailed in the non-conference affair. Union threatened a comeback late in the second half by cutting Lee's 15-point margin to 68-65 with just under five minutes remaining.

The Lady Flames were not about to fold. They stepped to the free throw line and converted six straight charity attempts and held a 74-67 advantage with 2:49 remaining. Lee's balanced attack was a key difference in the victory for the 10th ranked club.

Sophomore Brooke McKinnon made 9-of-10 free throws and paced the Lee scoring with 20 points. Senior Valeriya Musina also went to the line five times and made five straight. She completed an outstanding all-around effort with 18 points, four rebounds, five assists and four steals.

Junior Katie Nelson battled the big Union ladies inside and totaled 17 points. She blocked three shots and grabbed four rebounds. Freshman Angela Spann nailed three huge 3-point shots in the first half and tallied 11 markers. Senior point guard Allison Rader was also 4-of-4 from the charity stripe and rounded out Lee's double-figure scoring with 10 points. Rader also had five rebounds and three assists.

All totaled, Lee made 26-of-31 freebies, while Union was only able to convert 20-of-32. In fact, Lee's overall shooting performance was outstanding. The Lady Flames shot 48 percent from the field, 53 percent from 3-point range and 84 percent from the line.

On the other hand, the Lady Bulldogs converted 44 percent of their shots from the field. The big difference came from 3-point range where the club from Jackson, Tenn. was able to can just 4-of-20 treys.

"We played well on both ends of the floor and that's what allowed us to win," said coach Marty Rowe as he evened his coaching record to 2-2 against one of the nation's top NAIA schools. "The effort by everyone was outstanding. We got outstanding guard play the entire game. We pulled Katie (Nelson) outside some in the first half and that freed up some things inside."

Lavanda Ross paced the losers with 19 points. Josephine Owino had 16 points and nine rebounds, while Kaitlin Dudley countered with 13 points.