The Lipscomb women’s basketball team lost to the Arizona State Sun Devils 70-54 Thursday afternoon in a hastily-scheduled non-conference contest at Weatherup Center in Tempe, Arizona.
It was a bizarre game from the get-go in a matchup with just two days’ notice, as the Bisons replaced UCLA as ASU’s opponent when the Bruins could not play their originally scheduled game. Lipscomb’s schedule was opened up after their contest against Cincinnati was vacated due to COVID-19 protocols.
“We prepared the same as always,” assistant coach Chris Sumski said in a statement. “Our players are ready to play any time, any place. Shout out to Arizona State for adding us to the schedule last minute after Cincinnati cancelled, even with a couple of their players out.”
Due to lighting issues at Desert Financial Arena, their typical home venue, the matchup took place at Arizona State’s practice facility without fans and most media members.
Leading the Bisons was sophomore guard Blythe Pearson, scoring a team-high 11 points and pulling down 5 rebounds.
Senior center and Kentucky transfer Dorie Harrison added 9 points, 3 rebounds and a block, while 4th-year guard Casey Coller grabbed a team-leading 6 rebounds and played in all 40 minutes for Lipscomb.
Lipscomb stayed step-for-step with ASU early on, as sophomore point guard Jordan Peete and Pearson matched a two- and three-pointer from the Sun Devils to make the score 5-5 three minutes in.
Both teams scored efficiently in the first quarter, as the two sides combined to shoot 13-25, with Lipscomb shooting an unprecedented 60% from the floor.
“Our team cares more about ‘we’ scoring than ‘I’ scoring,” Sumski said, “and as long as that continues to be their mindset we will continue to get better.”
At the first media timeout with 3:50 left in the first quarter, Arizona State led 14-12 on 4-6 3-point shooting and 5 points from Jade Loville.
The defense tightened up from there, but Loville upped her total to 9 points on 4-6 shooting, resulting in an 19-14 score at the end of the quarter in favor of Arizona State. Loville finished with a game-high 19 points.
Both teams cooled off from the field in the second period, but behind 16 points in the paint across the first half, Lipscomb kept the game close. A buzzer-beater 3-ball from Collier, a Knoxville native, put the score at 34-30 in favor of the Sun Devils.
Making the situation even better, a technical foul applied to the Arizona State bench gave Casey Collier a pair of free throws before the second half started. Lipscomb had already gone to their locker room when the technical was called, so the free throws were taken after halftime and counted as third-quarter points.
With the score at 34-32 as the second half started, the Bisons found themselves very much in the contest behind their effective scoring.
In the third quarter, the away team struggled to keep up their scoring in the face of strong ASU defense. Lipscomb went just 1-11 in the third quarter, while Arizona State went on an 13-0 run to finish the quarter to push the score to 54-35.
Lipscomb’s 5 third-quarter points were their lowest in a quarter this season and ASU’s best defensive effort in a quarter.
In the fourth, though, Sumski made the necessary offensive adjustments to help Lipscomb score 5 straight to start the final frame. They ended up with 19 fourth-quarter points, 5 of which came from Harrison.
“Credit to our players,” Sumski said. “They came back from the break and had 3 great practices, 2 of them being at the end of long travel days, made no excuses and gave everything they had.”
“Players want to play and we’re glad for the opportunity.”
The Bisons committed 12 turnovers on the afternoon and were outrebounded 31-21 by the Sun Devils, only earning 1 second-chance point off of 4 offensive rebounds.
With the loss, Lipscomb falls to 5-8 heading into ASUN Conference play. They face the North Alabama Lions January 5 at Allen Arena in their next contest.
Arizona State starts conference play in the Pac-12 next time out, facing Washington on January 7.
Photo courtesy of Lipscomb Athletics