by Danny Kotula | Mar 7, 2022 | News Slider, Sports
This post has been updated to reflect KJ Johnson’s announcement on March 20 that he has signed with the North Alabama Lions as a transfer. Lipscomb men’s basketball players KJ Johnson, Kaleb Coleman, and Tanner Shulman have put their names into the transfer portal, signaling their intent to play with a new school next season. The entries come as transfer moves have increasingly become the standard in collegiate sports, especially at the Division I level. All three players are believed to be entering the portal in search of more playing time in their final two seasons. Johnson, Coleman, and Shulman are all members of the 2019 recruiting class at Lipscomb, head coach Lennie Acuff’s first year at the helm. Johnson and Coleman were recruited by former head coach Casey Alexander before his hire at Belmont. If the three do transfer out of the program, there will be no players in the eight-man recruiting class still playing for the Purple and Gold. Johnson, a defense-first point guard from Lewisburg, is the first to decide on a new home, signing with ASUN Conference rivals North Alabama. Johnson, who finished his third season with Lipscomb in March and has two years of eligibility left with the Lions, will now face the Bisons in conference play next season. North Alabama went 2-14 in the ASUN last season, the worst record in the conference, and exited the 2022 ASUN Tournament in the first round. Johnson was one of three players to play in all 33 contests this season for the Bisons, averaging 6.7 points in 21.2 minutes per contest. The Marshall County High School...
by Danny Kotula | Mar 7, 2022 | News Slider, Sports
Baseball is known as America’s Game, and graduate student John Cheatwood’s life can back that statement up. The relief pitcher for the Purple and Gold has seen the sport take him across the country, carry him through difficult moments, and help mold him through diverse experiences and continual change. As a matter of fact, he wasn’t always a pitcher. “I was a catcher all my life,” Cheatwood said. “I had wanted to be a catcher; [two-time MLB All-Star and longtime manager] Mike Scioscia was a catcher for the Dodgers, a longtime Dodger. I was always a catcher and I loved it. It was the unsung general, basically. The best seat in the house–that’s what I called it.” “When I got to college, though, [my coaches] were like, ‘Hey, you’re pretty big. We’re going to put you on the mound.’ I’m grateful for the change, but pitching is one of those things where… not only do you get to control the game, but you control the whole time of the game, so it’s amazing. I fell in love with it immediately.” Cheatwood’s love of baseball came early, and it all started in the City of Angels–emphasis on Angels. “I’m a [Los Angeles] Angels fan, so I loved that Anaheim wasn’t too far [from home growing up],” Cheatwood said. “I loved going to Angels games.” It didn’t take long watching one of Los Angeles’ two professional baseball teams for a young Cheatwood to find a passion for his team. “You can ask my mom this–it was my lifelong dream to take Mike Scioscia’s job. Mike was a longtime manager for the...
by Danny Kotula | Mar 4, 2022 | News Slider, Sports
LYNCHBURG, Virginia – Hard work pays off–except for the days when it doesn’t. For a Lipscomb team that came into an ASUN Quarterfinal game at East 1-seed Liberty with a 5.6% chance of winning according to ESPN, hard work simply came five points short of being enough. In a defensive slugfest at state-of-the-art Liberty Arena, the Flames earned one final ASUN Tournament win over the Bisons in a 52-47 decision. “What a hard-fought basketball game,” Lipscomb head coach Lennie Acuff said. “It probably wasn’t the prettiest thing to watch on either end, but… I was unbelievably proud of our team tonight.” “That was really hard-fought,” Liberty head coach Ritchie McKay said. “I was proud of our group that we didn’t play as efficiently as we had been on the offensive end, but we found a way to pull one out.” Holding a 7-5 record against Lipscomb in the all-time series, Liberty is now 3-0 over Lipscomb in ASUN Tournament matchups, the first two of which were ASUN Championships. Now that Liberty will depart for Conference USA next year, it’s possible that this was Lipscomb’s last chance to beat their recent rivals in a postseason matchup. The story throughout the game was a combination of pure scoring from a pair of dueling guards and excellent defense from both squads. Darius McGhee, who is second nationally in points per game, led Liberty with 26 points on 10-25 shooting and scored half of the Flames’ points on the evening. On the other side of the ball was true freshman Trae Benham, who continued his late-season run of form with a team-leading 21...
by Danny Kotula | Mar 3, 2022 | News Slider, Sports
NASHVILLE – The Lipscomb baseball team lost 5-1 to in-town rival Belmont Wednesday afternoon at Ken Dugan Field. A clear, 77-degree sky and a packed house at Stephen Lee Marsh Stadium was the backdrop to a midweek game that was mostly characterized by what might have been for the Bisons. A strong offensive start for the Bruins saw the visitors from two miles north take a 4-0 lead after three innings of play. Graduate pitcher Jared Shemper started the game for the Bisons, taking his first loss of the season (0-1). Shemper picked up two strikeouts but gave up two hits and three runs in the first two innings before being relieved. Connor Witzke, Patrick Williams, Hayden Frank, and closer John Cheatwood all pitched for the Bisons on the afternoon. Williams’ 3 innings was the longest stint for a Bisons pitcher in the game, but Shemper led in pitches thrown with 44. Leadoff hitter John Shields collected two hits in four at-bats for the Bisons, the only player for the Purple and Gold to get more than one hit. After senior outfielder Maddox Houghton was hit by a pitch on his first at-bat, sophomore Hayden Skipper replaced him and grabbed an assist on three at-bats. Jordan Zuger picked up the win for Belmont with a 1.80 ERA, while Grayson Taylor led the Bruins on offense with After matching Belmont’s hitting numbers but being unable to convert scoring positions into runs all game long, Lipscomb was tasked with making up a 5-run deficit in the bottom of the ninth. An error, a single, and a walk loaded the bases for...
by Danny Kotula | Mar 3, 2022 | News Slider, Sports
NASHVILLE – The Lipscomb women’s basketball team lost 60-42 to the North Florida Ospreys Wednesday night at Allen Arena in the ASUN Tournament First Round. “Our kids came out and battled defensively, especially in the first 30 minutes,” Lipscomb head coach Lauren Sumski said. “We executed the gameplan and did a really good job making them play the way we wanted to; we just really struggled to make shots today.” Lipscomb went 15-57 as a team for a 26% mark on field goals, including 7-32 at the three-point line. Despite 21 points and 12 rebounds from sophomore guard Jalyn Holcomb, including a double-double at halftime, the Bisons scored their lowest total of the season, including just eight points in the first and fourth quarters. “I thought Jalyn [Holcomb] played well,” Sumski said. “She made a lot of shots, but beyond that I think she stepped it up defensively compared to the last time we played [UNF].” Outside of Holcomb’s 5-7, the Bisons went 2-25 from beyond the arc. Sharpshooting guards Sydney Shelton and Blythe Pearson combined to go 1-14 from the three-point line, an uncharacteristic night for both. Shelton, a graduate guard from Greenfield, Indiana, was visibly emotional as she stepped off the court for the final time in Purple and Gold. “Those shots just didn’t fall,” Sumski said. “We knew we were going to get different looks where they were going to switch some, [and] we knew in those situations which ways we wanted them to rotate and where the shots would come from. “We did a good job finding those, but we just didn’t convert them.” Despite...
