YOUNG HARRIS, Ga. | Erin Walsh led Lee University with 26 points to rally past Young Harris College 70-65 in a non-conference women's basketball game Wednesday (Nov. 16) evening at the YHC Basketball Arena.

The Flames improved to 2-1 while the Mountain Lions dropped their season opener and fell to 0-1. Young Harris returns to action Saturday (Nov. 19) when they host Lees-McRae College in a 1:30 p.m. homecoming contest.

Walsh's back-to-back three-pointers in the final three minutes of the game gave Lee, which trailed for the majority of the game (nearly 34 minutes), the lead for good at 66-63 with 1:52 to play. Walsh, who scored 17 of her points in the second half, went 9-of-15 from the floor, including hitting five three pointers, in the contest.

After a Maddie Long layup with 62 seconds left pushed the Lee advantage to five points (68-63), Young Harris got a layup from Meredith Tarver to pull within three points. However, the Mountain Lions missed three three-point attempts in the final 13 seconds of the game that could have tied the game. Lindsey Roddy sealed the win for the Flames with two free throws with four seconds to go.

"We played hard enough to win the game," said YHC head coach Matt Stearsman. "That's a very good basketball team, but so are we. We had a couple of bad possessions offensively late and had a couple of breakdowns on the defensive end and they punished us. I hope people like what they saw tonight and come back because it looked real good to me and we have a chance to be good."

Young Harris used a 12-3 run in the latter stages of the second quarter to open up its largest lead of the game - 12 points (36-24) - on two Tarver free throws with 1:12 left before the half. Young Harris, which led 37-27 at the half, saw their lead shrink to three points (44-41) on a Walsh three-pointer with 4:29 left in the third, but the Mountain Lions scored the next six points - all by Briana Bell - over the next three minutes to open up a 50-41 advantage late in the quarter.

Lee pulled to within a point (50-49) at the end of third quarter, but Young Harris saw its lead increase to six on a Bria Ratliff three-points with 5:47 to go before Walsh led the Flames back.

Tarver led the Mountain Lions with 22 points, eight rebounds, four assists and three steals. Jenny Vernet (11) and Bell (10) also finished in double figures for Young Harris. Vernet also grabbed six rebounds while Bell added five. Ratliff finished with seven points, four assists and four steals. 

Carrie Cheeks had a double double for Lee with 13 points and 10 rebounds.