CLEVELAND, Tenn. – University of West Florida men's basketball (12-1, 4-1 GSC) suffered its first loss of the season at Lee University, falling in heartbreaking fashion 69-68. Rashaan Benson and Marvin Jones each finished with 16 points, and Moter Deng notched 15 points plus six rebounds. DJ Thorpe added 13 points. The loss snapped a program-record 12-game winning streak to start the season.
The Argos shot 26 of 65 from the field in the loss while the Flames (9-4, 4-2 GSC) shot 24 of 48 from the field. Lee won the battle of the boards 34-31 and shot 14 of 19 from the line to fuel the win. UWF finished just 9 of 19 from the line.
"I thought they outplayed us over a forty-minute game. Also, we can't go 9 of 19 from the free throw line and expect to beat a good team," said UWF head coach Jeff Burkhamer. "We had some possessions offensively where we didn't take very good shots that came back to haunt us, and I thought we gave in on some defensive possessions. In close games, one or two possessions make the difference."
The Argos won the battle of the offensive glass 15-8 and outscored the Flames 14-5 on second chance points. UWF forced 20 Lee turnovers while committing 11. The Argos had ten team steals in the game vs. five for Lee.
UWF built a 35-29 lead at half courtesy of nine points each from Thorpe and Benson, plus eight points, three boards and two assists from Deng. Jones notched seven points, one rebound and one assist. Henri Ventoniemi added four rebounds in the first. The Argos shot 46% from the field in the opening half, and the Flames shot 48%.
Benson scored four straight points early in the second to swell the Argo lead to 41-32 before a Lee rally trimmed the advantage to 41-37. The Argos responded well out of the first media timeout, reeling off five quick points to build the lead back to nine at 46-37. Lee once again rallied, cutting the edge to 46-43 and 48-46 with just over ten to play. Lee equalized the score at 51-51 with just over nine to go before building a 53-51 lead.
A Darryl Tucker layup evened the score at 53-53 with 6:55 to play, but a 9-2 run left Lee with a 62-55 advantage. A huge three from Deng would cut the lead to 62-58 before an and-1 jumper by Jones dropped it to 64-62 with just under four to go. Deng, assisted by Benson, then knocked down a three-pointer to tie it up at 65-65 with 1:21 left.
Lee's Levi Woods drained a pair of free throws to put Lee up 67-65 with 0:56 on the clock. Cody Jones knocked down two more with 17 seconds to go to increase the lead to four. Benson responded with a quick two with nine seconds left to cut the Flames lead to 69-67.
After the Flames missed a pair of free throws, Benson was fouled looking for a layup with 2.1 seconds left. He knocked down the first free throw. He missed the second but grabbed the offensive board. He could knock down the jumper though as time expired.
Benson added three rebounds and three assists to his 16 points. Tucker finished with eight points and six rebounds but fouled out in the game's final minutes. Ventoniemi led the team with eight rebounds.
"We'll get better execution-wise offensively and get to where we understand you can't take a single possession off in a good college game defensively," Burkhamer said about the team's preparation for its Jan. 7 contest vs. Mississippi College. "We've been good at home, and hopefully we'll come back and play very well on Sunday."
West Florida takes on the Choctaws (6-5, 3-3 GSC) at home Sunday. Tip-off vs. Mississippi College is scheduled for 4:00 p.m. in the UWF Field House.
#ARGOS#
