MONTEVALLO, Ala. — In a key Gulf South Conference game against preseason favorites Lee University, Montevallo was haunted by a 50 percent shooting mark from the free throw line in a 71-67 loss to the Flames Thursday evening.

"(Lee) is, obviously, one of the top teams in the country," said Montevallo women's head basketball coach Gary Van Atta. "One thing you always want to do when you're building a program is when you have an opportunity to play against the best, you can compete against them and raise your level of play and I thought we did that tonight."

The started off well for Montevallo (12-3, 6-2) as the Falcons jumped out to an early 6-0 lead with 7:56 left in the first quarter. Shyan Flack made it 8-3, Falcons, 48 seconds later, but Lee tied the game at 8 off back-to-back made free throws by Nicky Widenski with six minutes left in the game's opening quarter.

After Lee (16-1, 8-1) took a brief 10-8 lead, Kiya Sain converted an old-fashion three-point play to give Montevallo an 11-10 lead. Both teams went through a scoring drought over the next few minutes, before Lee took a 16-14 advantage into the second quarter.

From there, Lee went on a late scoring run to outscore Montevallo, 26-18, during the second quarter that was helped by six 3-point baskets, including of stretch of four consecutive makes in the closing minutes of the period.

"The second quarter kind of got away from us a little bit, which was uncharacteristic of us," Van Atta said. "But I thought we came out in the third quarter and got right back in the game."

Montevallo turned up the heat on both ends of the court coming out of the locker rooms as the Falcons shot 50 percent (8-16) from the field, including four 3-pointers, while holding Lee to only 38.5 percent (5-13) shooting during the quarter.

However, the game was ultimately decided during the fourth quarter when Montevallo converted only four of 10 free throw opportunities throughout the game's final 10 minutes. Two of those made free throws came with 11 seconds left in the game as Paige Ward converted two attempts after Lee was called for a technical after calling a timeout when the Flames didn't have one. This made it a 71-66 game and gave the Falcons a chance to cut their deficit.

But Flack and Marisa Snodgrass both missed shots at the basket in the closing seconds.

Montevallo will look to start a new winning streak on Saturday, Jan. 18 when the Falcons travel to down Interstate 65 to Montgomery to face AUM at 2 p.m.