Women’s basketball at Lee University has landed on new levels of excellence this season. Through December, the girls won all six games and got off to a superb New Year with five straight wins.

Over Christmas break, The Lady Flames basketball team traveled to Hawaii to challenge Holy Names University and Vanguard University at the Hawaii Classic. The girls came out with two wins despite speculation that Vanguard would prevail over the Flames. “Vanguard was a big confidence booster. It gave the team validity with such a big win over a team that was supposed to beat us” said Coach Mark Rowe.

On Thursday, January 17, the team did an incredible job trapping the Berry guard during full-court pressure and forcing the Lady Vikings into 26 turnovers on the floor; many of which came in the first half. Side defense on Berry’s lead scorer Mickey Duncan also helped foil Berry’s offensive strikes in the first half. Not only was the Lady Flame defense on fire, but the offensive effort was of equal temperature. Jessica Still led the pack of high-scoring Flames with 22 points, followed closely by freshman Brook McKinnon with 21 points. Fallon Lee came in next with 13 points, while Katie Nelson scored 12 points and snatched 10 rebounds. Jan Dodson also contributed with six rebounds and six points.

The women’s basketball team played another tough game on Saturday, January 19, against Shorter College. This important conference game, which ended in victory for the Lady Flames, improved the team’s overall record to 17-2 and maintained their pristine conference record, 9-0.

The Lady Flames forged a 15-point margin lead by half time (49-34), but the Lady Hawks refused to give in. Dodson and Still provided exemplary out shooting and Nelson took care of the inside. Still led the scoring attack with 25 points, six rebounds, five assists and three steals. Dodson notched 22 points, five rebounds and three assists. Nelson also contributed 22 points and six rebounds, while McKinnon accrued 14 points, three assists and four rebounds. Lee also had a stellar night with five points and 10 assists; Aaron Richmond had six points and five assists.

With recent NAIA rankings in, the Lady Flames are rated number two in the nation, the highest rating ever procured by women’s basketball in Lee University history. The Lady Flames have only suffered two losses this season, the first to current number one ranked Union University and the second to current fifth-ranked Freed-Hardeman University.

With such a promising season thus far, Rowe plans to focus on honing the team’s defensive skills to prepare for the future. “We have to get better defensively. This will hold up against tough teams in the future, where defense will be key,”said Rowe.

Other essentials to future success will be combining excitement with second-half season burn out. “We went through burn out last year, and we will use that as a tool to motivate for this year. We have the attitude of never being satisfied and never relaxing. These girls know they have a chance to be special,” said Rowe.