CLEVELAND, Tenn. – The Hawks shot 40% from the floor but dropped their first conference game of the season, 86-70, to the Lee Flames.

Alijah Bennett opened the game by hitting his first three shots and scoring six of Shorter's first nine points. Bennett helped the Hawks take a 9-7 lead at the first media timeout of the game.

After the timeout, Lee (3-2, 1-0 GSC) went on a 13-2 run, with three different players hitting three-pointers. Phil Taylor broke the Flames hot shooting streak with his second layup of the night, which was followed by an Eric Ross field goal, as SU (5-1, 0-1 GSC) forced the lead below ten points, 22-15.

Following the under-eight media timeout, Taylor converted a three-pointer to halt a Lee run. Bennett followed with his fourth field goal of the game, making it a one-possession game, 25-22, in favor of the Flames.

Over the final 6:58, Lee went on a 14-6 run to take an 11-point lead at the half, 39-28. Taylor scored five of the Hawks six points during the run, including a field goal from beyond the arc.

Taylor's 15 first half points led all scorers, as Shorter shot 40% (10 of 25) from the floor. Lee made 46% of its shots, including 6 of 11 tries from three-point range.

After the intermission, the Flames opened the second half on a 7-2 run before Bennett and Mike Wickliff evened the second half scoring at seven points per team.

Back-to-back three's prior the under-16 media timeout gave Lee a 52-35 lead.

Cedric Guillaume and Taylor kept Lee's lead at 15 points on multiple occasions, but each time the Flames answered from three-point land.

Trailing by 18, the Hawks went on a 7-0 run in less than two minutes to cut the Lee's lead to 11. Wickliff's three-pointer forced a Lee timeout with 10:16 remaining in the contest, and the home team in front, 62-51.

Shorter almost cut the lead to single-digits just past the halfway point of the final half, but the team could not get closer than 10, 65-55.

After SU got as it close as it would get in the half, the Flames used an 8-1 run to take its second largest lead of the game, 73-56, with 6:31 left in the game.

With his team trailing by 18 coming out of the under-4 media timeout, Taylor scored his 28th point of the night, helping the Hawks pull within 15.

Unfortunately for Shorter, it was too little too late. The Lee lead remained steady for a substantial period of time, and although the Hawks got within 12, the team fell, 86-70.

Taylor led all scorers with 32 points on 7 of 18 shooting, including 5 of 9 from beyond the arc. Bennett chipped in 14 for the Hawks. Five Lee players scored in double figures, led by Rico Overall who had 19.

Shorter shot 40.0% from the floor, but made only 7 of 23 three-pointers. The Flames shot 49.2% overall and were 12 of 21 from deep.

The Hawks return to action next Saturday against Faith College. Tipoff is set for 5 p.m. from the Winthrop-King Centre.