Baseball team excited to find new identity in 2015 season

Leading in to the 2015 season, the Lipscomb Bisons baseball team will focus on the current team and not get caught up on last season’s success. The Bisons made it to the conference championship game in the 2014 season, only to fall short to Kennesaw State, but majority of the team returned with big ambitions for this season. “When you have a team that ended on a little bit of success, and the majority of that team is coming back, there was a little bit of momentum that’s come from the end of last season,” Head Coach Jeff Forehand said about the end of last season. Even though the team finished with more success than they have in past years, they are still not satisfied and want to look to go even further. Forehand mentioned one of the big differences from last year’s team and this year’s is that the 2014 team really had no expectations set for them.  “There really was no expectation [last year] because there hadn’t been anything prior to that, that we had done. I think that’s kind of a scary thing, that this year there are a few more expectations,” Forehand said. “Not that we’ve been picked to win or anything like that, but I think people have recognized how we ended and that we’re getting better, so there are some expectations this time.” Forehand said that he wants his team to focus on the present team’s identity. “I guess it is hard to kind of not think about last year since we did come so close, but I mean we got a whole new...

Underclassman stand out at TSU Invitational

The Lipscomb Bisons Track and Field team saw many of the younger athletes succeed with personal records as well as in team records as they competed in their third indoor meet of the season at Tennessee State University. The Bisons saw success in both the field events as well as running events. Starting with the women’s team, several athletes set new personal records, and some broke even bigger records. Senior thrower April Terry, one of the Bisons’ leading throwers, broke the school record in the weight throw with a throw of 17.82m, and sophomore thrower Rachel Dixon set a PR in the shotput (10.01m). On the running side of the events, the Lady Bisons were at the top of many of the events with several of the younger athletes taking some of the glory. The Lady Bisons swept the mile. Madi Talbert took first with a time of 5:00.89, Barbara Lee Ball finished second at 5:01.05, and Sally Larson rounded out the top three running a time of 5:03.47. Freshman Kayla Montgomery won the 5k with a time of 18:02.39. Freshman Kacey Kemper won the 800 (2:16.06), and the team’s DMR team finished in first (13:10.94). When it came to the men’s events, it was the freshmen and sophomores that stood out as well. Sophomore Devon Wade won the pole vault with a jump of 4.10m, while freshman Grayson Webber took first in the weight throw (13.33m), and freshman Kade Hinkle set a personal record in the weight throw (11.35m). Senior Kenny Smith took second in the 400 meter race (0:50.71) with sophomore Brian Gentry following closely behind to take third (0:51.22). Sophomore...

Intense final seconds conlcude with a Bisons victory

One missed free throw with less than a minute left to play could have changed the outcome, but when freshman Nathan Moran sank his second foul shot, the Bisons defense was able to hold off the Spartans until the final buzzer. Moran did not lead the Bisons in any category Tuesday night, but his presence on the court was felt in the final minutes of play. The freshman played 29 minutes of the game against USC Upstate, but had just seven points. In a game that saw 12 lead changes, it was Moran who scored one free throw to give the Bisons a two-point cushion with less than a minute to play. Moran missed his first shot, leaving the crowd deflated, but picked everyone back up as he sank the second shot. “It just felt like another free throw,” Moran said. “I mean, missing it didn’t feel like another free throw, but it was another free throw.” After the second shot, the Bisons played defense that drew no fouls in the final seconds, which gave the Spartans no free opportunities in the end. At half time the score was tied, 32 all, but the Spartans took an early lead and held it through the majority of the second half. Senior Malcolm Smith drew a foul on a layup that went in to put the Bisons back in the lead, 52-51. Smith drew several hard fouls in the second half of the game by being aggressive against a tough Spartan defense. Junior Talbott Denny also played aggressively in the second half. Moran talked about how much he has benefitted from playing with these older teammates. “It’s...

Bisons conclude non-conference play with two wins

The Lady Bisons broke their three game losing streak while the men’s team bounced back with a win after losing to Missouri. Against Trevecca, the game was a tale of two halves. The Lady Bisons were down 39-34 at half time before coming out with a strong effort in the second half. At just over 16 minutes, Lipscomb took a 47-41 lead and kept it the rest of the game. “We came out flat in the first half. It’s the first day back to classes, and we just weren’t ready to play in the first half,” head coach Greg Brown said. “I told them to forget the first half, make the adjustments and go, and I thought they played with a lot more intensity in the second half.”  The Lady Bisons had a strong offensive game in the second half that was led by senior Danay Fothergill. Fothergill had 26 points on the game and made shots from the paint as well as the three point line. Brown said that even though he’s happy with the win, his team needs to come out strong for all 40 minutes of conference games, not just the second half. “We told them to treat this game like it’s the first game of conference,” Brown said. “Hopefully it teaches them that that’s a great 20 minutes, but in the conference, these next games, you can’t afford to do that.” The Lady Bisons shot their best field goal percentage of the season against Trevecca. At the end of the game, the team had shot 54.1 percent from the field. Lipscomb came away with the 95-71 win improving their...

Lady Bisons finish 0-2 at Georgia Tech Holiday Tournament

The Christmas break gave the Lady Bison basketball team a chance to get some rest, but the team still came up short in the Georgia Tech Holiday Tournament. The Lady Bisons travelled down to Atlanta where they first played the host, Georgia Tech on Dec. 29. After the first half of the game, the Lady Bisons were only down by 11 points; however, in the second half Georgia Tech scored 32 points to come away with the 71-53 win. Ashley Southern had her 26th career double-double and fourth of the year. The Lady Bisons were perfect from the free throw line, but only shot one free throw the entire game. Georgia Tech was 42.9 percent from the field while Lipscomb was just 36.2 percent. Just a day after the loss to Georgia Tech, the Lady Bisons had to refocus and prepare to play Harvard on Dec. 30. The game against Harvard was different than the game against the Yellow Jackets. The Lady Bisons did not come out as strong in the first half. The team allowed Harvard to get ahead 41-22 in the first half before finally losing 84-63. The Lady Bisons were neck-in-neck with Harvard in terms of scoring in the second half. Lipscomb scored 41 points to Harvard’s 43. Despite the loss, the Lady Bisons had four players score in double figures. Chandler Cooper and Ashley Southern each had 14 points, Sara Bliss had 11 points and Danay Fothergill had 10. By the end of the game the Lady Bisons were shooting 42.1 percent from the field to Harvard’s 45.2 percent. The Lady Bisons come home to...