Flames bounce back with elite defensive effort to split Alabama road trip

After a tense battle didn’t go their way in Huntsville on Friday, Lee’s men’s basketball team could have sulked. They could have packed it in and complained about the loss. But that’s not who they are.

The Flames responded well on their off-day Saturday, being locked in and focused during a Saturday evening practice and bouncing back with a gritty victory over West Alabama Sunday afternoon.

In Huntsville, they knocked down nine threes helping them reach a 42-37 lead at the halftime break. Alabama-Huntsville used a big second half to claim the victory.

After the game, the team had to be aware of what went wrong, but it is a quick turnaround in these weekend doubleheaders. Their focus quickly shifted to Sunday’s match-up with West Alabama.

“Bounce back Sunday. Believe that,” you could hear as the team boarded the bus back to the hotel.

“We’ll get back … for sure,” another player added.

Bounce back, they did.

Saturday morning, after a couple of film sessions, the bus headed south to Livingston, Alabama, a three hour drive from Huntsville. Spirits were up within the team. They were relaxed, but focused.

They arrived to Pruitt Hall in Livingston that evening for practice. They began with a shootaround to get loose. Junior guard Jalen Page’s shooting routine had him pulling threes from the logo.

Throughout the course of the hour-long session, their attention-to-detail was evident. Every drill, every offensive play, every defensive scouting drill was executed well due to both players’ and coaches’ commitment to studying film and mindset.

They know what they are capable of.

Every game in the Gulf South Conference commands attention to the minutest of details. They’re locked in.

Sunday afternoon was no different. From the tip, the guys brought high energy on both sides of the ball. West Alabama’s style of play is one that slows the game down, so the expectation was a low-scoring game.

In low scoring, drag-out matchups, every single possession matters. The Flames’ defensive effort was suffocating. They held the opponent to 26 percent from the field; that’s significantly lower than any Gulf South team has shot all season.

The stats and film agree: Lee’s effort on the defensive end was one of their best in recent memory. After not getting the result they wanted on Friday, they followed it up with one of the more focused, energetic games of the year, at one of the toughest places to win in the country.

“Similar to our opening weekend … I thought our guys showed extreme maturity and focus bouncing back coming off a loss,” Assistant Coach Jason Laatsch told the Clarion. “It was a physical game, and they battled every possession. It was good to see from a team who played so hard on Friday and didn’t get the result we wanted, but to bounce back this way showed a lot of grit and maturity.”

The maturity of the whole team was evident, but on the offensive end, the maturity and experience of fifth-year senior Jayce Willingham shone through even more. Willingham, the Flames’ leading scorer this season, scored 20 points to go with 5 rebounds.

In such a low scoring game, it can come down to the free throw line, and the veteran knocked down free throws throughout the course of the game.

Back in his home state, Willingham knocked down the dagger with a minute left – his patented baseline fadeaway was as pure as ever.

Another aspect of maturity shown by the Flames on Sunday? Senior Alex Kelehear’s 15 minutes. Kelehear has been a vocal leader for 4 years in the locker room and in his time on the court. His basketball IQ makes him an obvious candidate for future coaching jobs, and his talent on the floor is proving beneficial for this Flames squad.

Coach Smith noted Kelehear’s impact on Sunday. “Though it doesn’t show up in the statistical categories, Alex Kelehear’s 15 minutes was one of the keys to our win today,” Smith told Lee’s athletic communications. “His leadership and ability to communicate and get guys in the right spot was impressive.”

Whether it’s the coaching staff, veteran leadership, or the rest of the team, it takes everyone for the Flames’ success to keep running. It takes everyone’s mentality to be the same level of locked in. The toughness of the sport at the D2 level demands that kind of intensity.

The Flames are back in action Friday against Auburn-Montgomery in Walker Arena.