NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Lipscomb put in a stellar second half to grab a victory in the first round of the ASUN men’s basketball tournament on Monday night.
The No. 2 Lipscomb Bisons (21-9) defeated the No. 7 Stetson Hatters (12-20) by a score of 89-73 in a well-attended game. Lipscomb converted on 14-of-32 three-pointers.
“We just haven’t been a good three-point shooting team all season,” Lipscomb coach Casey Alexander said. “So 14-for-32’s a great night for us.”
Junior guard Garrison Mathews shot 10-of-16 on field goals and 4-of-4 on free throws in a 29-point team-leading effort. Junior forward Eli Pepper led with eight rebounds.
Sophomore guard Matt Rose shot 5-of-9 off the bench for a second-best 15 points. Every shot he attempted was from behind the three-point line.
“That’s what he does best,” Alexander said. “That’s why he’s in there.”
For the Hatters, freshman forward Abayomi Iyiola shot 7-of-9 on field goals and 4-of-6 on free throws for a team-best 18 points. He also led the team with 10 rebounds.
Senior guard Divine Myles went 4-of-6 on field goals and 6-of-8 on free throws and finished with a second-best 15 points.
The Bisons shot 46.4 percent from the field, while the Hatters converted on 43.6 percent of their shots. The Hatters out-rebounded the Bisons 39-36, but they lost the assist battle 22-12 and committed 18 turnovers compared to Lipscomb’s 11.
Lipscomb took an 8-2 lead to start things out. Later on, Stetson set the score at 19-13 in favor of Lipscomb with a Myles jumper at the 12:09 mark.
The Bisons then rode a 13-3 run to extend the lead to 32-16 before the Hatters took a timeout with 7:32 left.
The Hatters then changed the momentum, grabbed 14 rebounds and outscored the Bisons 27-12. They took their first lead of the game at 41-43 with 43 seconds to go.
With three seconds left in the half, Bisons senior guard Aaron Korn scored a three-pointer that put Lipscomb up 44-43 at halftime. The score caused the crowd to erupt and set the precedent for the rest of the game.
In the second half, the Hatters struggled to shoot while the Bisons put together a 24-5 run that lasted until the 10:17 mark. Throughout the remaining twenty minutes, the Bisons rebounded 26 times compared to Stetson’s 15 while outscoring the Hatters 45-30.
“The three at the end of the half was [a] huge momentum-changer,” Alexander said. “And then the start of the second half really took a lot of air out of them, I thought.”
The Bisons will host No. 3 Jacksonville in Allen Arena at 7 p.m. on Thursday, March 1st for the ASUN Semifinals. Lipscomb is two wins away from an NCAA tournament berth.
“This whole school has never been there before,” Mathews said. “And to the atmosphere, to everybody that’s been behind us all year, it would be great for them, too.”