The Lipscomb men’s basketball team defeated the Tennessee Wesleyan Bulldogs 98-64 Sunday afternoon at Allen Arena.
An unconvincing first half saw the Bisons trail for the majority of the first frame against TWU, a member of NAIA’s Appalachian Athletic Conference. The Bulldogs led Lipscomb by as many as 5, but Lipscomb took the lead for good with 8:40 in the first half.
TWU shot 44% from the 3-point line in the first half, scoring 21 points beyond the arc to keep them in the game at halftime with just a 53-43 deficit.
“[I was] pretty proud of our guys in that second half,” assistant coach Kevin Carroll said. “We did not have our best effort defensively, obviously, in the first half, and I really did not feel that our intensity and focus was there.
“In the second half, we corrected that, as we should have. The communication on the floor was tremendously better, and it really showed and led to a lot of our points on the offensive end,” Carroll said.
Second-year freshman Jacob Ognacevic scored 35 points for a career-high outing for the Bisons. The Sheboygan, Wisconsin-born power forward went 12-15 from the field and made 9 of 16 free throws, adding 6 rebounds.
“Obviously, Jacob is a great player,” Carroll said. “Most importantly, I thought our guys really looked for him and gave him good opportunities to catch and convert around the rim.”
He probably could have had well over 40 if he had his normal day from the [free throw] line,” Carroll said.
Graduate transfer forward Parker Hazen pulled down a game-leading 9 rebounds and added 4 points on a night where the Bisons dominated an undersided Bulldogs team in the paint. Lipscomb scored 46 points in the paint and made 16 of their 21 layup attempts.
Meanwhile, the Bisons were equally strong outside the perimeter.
Sophomore guard Tommy Murr scored 20 points on perfect 4-4 shooting behind the 3-point line and 7-8 field goal shooting. Hailing from Athens, Alabama, Murr also picked up 4 assists and 3 rebounds.
“A lot of it has to do with the guys we have and our maturity,” Murr said. “We started out not super hot and we couldn’t get a stop, but I thought we got good looks all night.”
“[That maturity] is the right way to play the game,” Murr said. “It’s fun finding your guys and it’s fun when they find you.”
The Bisons combined for 25 assists on the night, leading to 58% accuracy from the field.
True freshman Trae Benham, a shooting guard from Concord, North Carolina, scored 14 points on 6-11 shooting for a career-high. He also registered career highs in rebounds with 6 and minutes with 15.
The Bisons broke a 5-game losing streak with the win and advance to 6-7 on the campaign, including a 2-5 mark since losing All-ASUN center Ahsan Asadullah to injury.
Lipscomb is next in action Wednesday night when they face off against 19th-ranked LSU in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.