The King University men's basketball team came to Cleveland and beat Lee 72-58 in an NCAA Division II nonconference game Monday night. The Tornado (3-1) stretched a four-point lead to 16 with the final seven points of the first half and the first five of the second half, but the host Flames (1-5) responded with a 10-0 run before King pulled away again. Kalen Clifton with 15 points led four double-figure scorers for King, while Lee's Michael McGuirk scored 18 and Ryan Montgomery had 17, on 6-of-7 shooting, plus 12 rebounds. Colton Blevins added 10 points and Kentrell Evans had seven rebounds and three steals in defeat. The Flames made only one of their nine 3-point shots, compared to eight of 18 for the Tornado (including three of four by Clifton). "We have just not shot the basketball over the last two games," coach Bubba Smith said in a Lee release, "and because of that we've seen a lot of zone (defense) against us. And we are going to continue to see that until we make some of those shots. We have guys that can make those shots, and we are confident they are going to start to fall." Smith praised his team's defensive performance and added, "We're really close to putting it all together." The Flames' first three losses were by a total of nine points.
* Dalton State College senior forward Elijah Staley is the Southern States Athletic Conference men's basketball player of the week after scoring 34 points and adding eight rebounds and two blocked shots in Saturday's win over Coastal Georgia. That came in Life University's tournament in Staley's hometown of Marietta, Georgia. He leads the Roadrunners with 15 points and 6.6 rebounds a game.
* Sewanee sophomore guard Luke Smith was selected the Southern Athletic Association men's basketball player of the week for his 44 points, 14 assists and 14 rebounds in wins at Covenant and Belhaven. He shot 56 percent from the field and 50 percent from 3-point range. He added three steals against Covenant.
Volleyball
* For the fourth year in a row, Covenant College is the USA South's team sportsmanship award winner for volleyball. It was the program's fourth consecutive year also as the West Division's regular-season champion, so coach Joanna Ehman's Lady Scots are not just lovable losers. For each of the 12 sports the USAS honors with a sportsmanship award, each member of every team votes on the most sportsmanslike opposing team, and the school receiving the most votes wins. Volleyball joins men's soccer and baseball as Covenant sports that have won the award four successive years.