Garrison Mathews scored a team-high 23 points as Lipscomb defeated Jacksonville in a 77-62 victory to send the Bisons to their first ASUN championship game since 2006.
The Bisons (22-9) entered Thursday’s game against the Jacksonville Dolphins (15-18) in an attempt to break a three-game losing streak in the conference semifinals. They did just that, winning the shooting percentage battle 45.8 percent to 41.8 percent and the assist battle 19-9. The Bisons head to FGCU on Sunday for the championship.
“You walk in there, and it’s 0-0,” Lipscomb coach Casey Alexander said of the upcoming game, “and you’re playing a great team in a great environment in a championship game, so you’ve got to expect their best.”
One of the biggest keys of the game for the Bisons was limiting redshirt senior guard Devin Harris and sophomore guard Tanner Rubio to a combined 2-of-15 on field goals. Both players were starters.
“Our main objective was to try to shut [Harris] down and keep him away from the basket,” Lipscomb junior center Rob Marberry said. “I think we did a good job of that in the first half, and in the second half we carried over.”
Dolphins’ freshman guard JD Notae, who had scooped up the ASUN Freshman of the Year award, missed his third straight game due to an injury.
Redshirt senior forward Cody Helgeland scored nine of Jacksonville’s 23 field goals for a team-high 24 points. Freshman guard Jalyn Hinton scored all 12 of the Dolphins’ points off the bench.
Junior forward Eli Pepper led the Bisons with eight rebounds, while Harris gave the Dolphins a team-high 11.
The Bisons also converted on 14-of-14 free throws, while the Dolphins outrebounded the Bisons 31-30. Both teams committed 17 fouls.
The game started out as a defensive battle. Lipscomb utilized runs of eight, five and seven unanswered points to take a 26-8 lead with 6:28 left in the first half.
The Bisons took their largest lead of the night at 39-17 with 1:33 left.
After that, Jacksonville put up an 18-7 run that crossed over into the second half to make the score 46-35 in favor of Lipscomb with exactly 16 minutes to go.
The Bisons took control from then on, widening their lead to 19 points with under 11 minutes to go. Although Lipscomb allowed the Dolphins to narrow the margin to 11 points one more time, the game clock read 1:56.
Alexander summarized the challenge of facing the best team in the ASUN Conference on Sunday.
“Really good team. Championship game. That’s why we’ve been here all year long. I’m excited about it.”
The no. 2 Bisons will travel to play the no. 1 FGCU Eagles in the ASUN Championship on Sunday, March 4. Tipoff is scheduled for 2 p.m. CDT, and fans can catch the nationally-televised game on ESPN.
Photo courtesy of Lipscomb Athletics
Highlight reel by Olivia Banks and Parker Bell