MURRAY, Kentucky – The Lipscomb women’s basketball team lost a 74-50 decision to the Murray State Racers Saturday evening at CFSB Center in Murray, Kentucky.
An outing full of disappointment left the Bisons without a win over Division I opposition on the season and continued a difficult run of games after losing 50-49 to Tennessee State Wednesday.
A Racers squad that entered the game at 7-2 on the year certainly had Lipscomb’s respect going in, but the pervasive feeling in the locker room was that the team still could have done much better on the night than their performance showed.
“I definitely credit them a lot,” assistant coach Chris Sumski said. “They’re a really good team, but I think we’re a much better team than what we showed tonight.”
Sumski acted as the head coach for the second straight game in the absence of his wife, head coach Lauren Sumski.
“Honestly, we’re just trying to hold it down as best we can until she gets back,” Sumski said after a noticeable pause to collect himself. “But the culture that she’s built, we should be able to keep things rolling even when she’s not here.”
Despite leading the team with 11 points, it was a visibly frustrating night for sophomore guard Blythe Pearson. The Overland Park, Kansas-born shooting guard hit 3-4 from deep and pulled down a team-leading 8 rebounds as well, but all 11 points from the Bisons’ leading scorer came in the second half, when it was largely too late to affect the result.
“It started at the beginning of the game,” Pearson said. “We didn’t come out with the energy or the fight that we needed to.
“We’ve been doing that in the past few games, just coming out complacent. We know that with the success that we want to have in-conference, we’re going to have to change that and come into games with the fire that we know that we all have inside of us,” Pearson said.
The Racers quickly built a 10-point lead in the first six minutes of the contest, taking a 12-2 advantage behind 12 early points from forward Kaitlin Young. Young finished with 23 to lead the Racers, going 6-6 at the free throw line and 8-11 from the field.
Lipscomb committed 5 of their 20 turnovers in the first quarter, including 3 traveling violations. Coming into the game with just over 15 turnovers per game, the Bisons made an already-poor average into an even more disappointing statistic.
Senior guard Sydney Shelton knocked down two straight from the three-point line for 6 of her 8 points on the night to get Lipscomb to a 16-10 deficit after one quarter, but the night only grew worse for the visiting Bisons.
Lipscomb only managed 9 points in the second quarter, while Young continued to torch the Bisons defense. The advantage was built up to 37-19 by halftime, a lead that would prove to be insurmountable.
In the second half, Pearson found her shooting form, scoring her 11 points to keep the Bisons competitive down the stretch once the Racers had already involved their bench.
“Murray State did a good job defensively on me,” Pearson said. “I was having trouble creating space for shots. When their second string came in, I got some more open looks for shots, so I would give them credit for that.”
“Something that our team is going to have to work towards is creating our own shots and figuring out our second plan of action after they shut down our first,” Pearson said.
Rebounding was a key deficit for the Bisons, as they gave up 18 offensive rebounds to the Racers and were outrebounded 49-30 overall.
“They [get offensive rebounds] really well,” Sumski said, “but a lot of that was controllables on our end that we could have prevented just by being more disciplined and detailed, especially with our short-shot rebounding.”
Positives from the afternoon included tenacious play from second-year freshman Jordan Peete. The St. Louis, Missouri-born point guard took 2 charges defensively and earned 2 steals along with 5 points, all while managing an injury.
“There were a few [players] that stood out, but specifically, I would say Jordan Peete,” Sumski said. “She really battled through a tough ankle injury and really sucked it up to be able to give her team everything she had tonight.”
In the end, despite her disappointment in the result, Pearson was thankful to have another opportunity to play in two days’ time.
“I’m just looking forward to another chance, another 40 minutes to play basketball,” Pearson said. “We’re lucky to be here; there are a lot of teams in quarantine right now, so we’re lucky to have another chance to get better.”
The Bisons will take a 4-7 record into their next outing, a tilt with the Eastern Illinois Panthers 3 PM Monday in Charleston, Illinois. That game will be broadcast live on The Bison, Lipscomb’s on-campus radio station.
Photo courtesy of Lipscomb Athletics