by Grant Ledgister | Feb 19, 2020 | News Slider, Sports
The Lipscomb Lady Bisons survived a second-half comeback from the NJIT Highlanders 68-66 Monday night in Allen Arena. The win snaps a six-game losing streak and keeps the Lady Bisons in the driver’s seat for the eighth and final spot in the ASUN Championship Tournament. “We knew that today’s game was going to be a battle for the conference tournament,” Lipscomb head coach Lauren Sumski said. “We knew they were going to do some things they hadn’t done all year; they had to step up and make shots they hadn’t made all year.” It was a sluggish first quarter for both teams. Neither team shot particularly well, with Lipscomb only taking a 12-8 lead because of three-pointers from senior guard Carleigh Short and junior forward Taylor Clark. Lipscomb took a 34-17 lead into halftime off the back of a 14-4 run in the second quarter. “That’s been the consistent theme for us,” Sumski said. “We’ve been putting together pretty good second quarters when we settle into the game. If we don’t have that second quarter, we don’t have the result we had tonight” Despite widening the lead to 40-17 with nine minutes to play in the third quarter, Lipscomb would only make four more field goals the rest of the quarter and none in the final three minutes. This allowed NJIT to drop the lead to 51-42 with only 70 seconds played into the final quarter. “We just have to do better out of halftime defending and keeping a sense of urgency,” Sumski said. “It’s about being tough and withstanding those runs.” A scoreless run by Lipscomb late in...
by Grant Ledgister | Feb 16, 2020 | News Slider, Sports
The Lipscomb Bisons defeated the FGCU Eagles 64-54 on Thursday night. Also in Allen Arena the Bisons made sure the Star Wars Night tradition continued and Garrison Mathews’ returned to Lipscomb. Tonight was Greg Jones’s night. The sophomore dropped 24 points, a career-high, including four three-pointers. “I’m proud of [Jones],” said Bisons Head Coach Lennie Acuff. “He didn’t get off to a great start, but the boy sure has rallied; he’s stayed the course and is seeing the fruit of it.” Ahsan Asadullah recorded his eleventh double-double of the season with 17 points and 11 rebounds. Miles Miller also was in double figures for the Bisons with 11 points. “We run offense through Ahsan,” said Acuff. “He’s having an unbelievable year – I think he should be the player of the year in the league.” Lipscomb started the game down 8-2 but scored the game’s next 13 points to take the lead. The Bisons went into halftime ahead 32-21 and never looked back. The key to the Bisons success was the defense. Lipscomb stole the ball 10 times, and Michael Buckland recorded a block. “We guarded well,” Acuff said. “We’ve continued to improve as a defensive team, and that’s important for us.” A poor shooting night for FGCU made matters worse for the team. The Eagles shot 20-53, including 9-26 from the three-point range. This led to several scoring droughts of two or more minutes throughout both halves for the Eagles. FGCU showed life in the second half but was not able to narrow the gap enough before Lipscomb regained control. “They made some really good runs,” said Greg...
by Grant Ledgister | Feb 14, 2020 | News Slider, Sports
The Lipscomb Bisons clinched a spot in the ASUN Basketball Tournament with a 77-63 dismantling of the NJIT Highlanders Thursday night in Allen Arena. The win and Jacksonville’s loss move Lipscomb into sole possession of fourth place in the ASUN. If the regular season ended today, Lipscomb would host a tournament game. “The goal right now is to win out,” Lipscomb sophomore center Ahsan Asadullah said. “We want to win the rest of the games that we have, so if we can do that, I think we’ll be good for fourth – maybe even third if things go our way.” Lipscomb never left a doubt as to who the better team was. The Bisons jumped out to an 8-2 lead in the opening minutes of the first half and never surrendered the lead for the rest of the game. “It’s always important to get off to a good start,” Lipscomb head coach Lennie Acuff said. “They jumped on us at their place and so we wanted to try to get that rectified. I thought our guys were ready to play and locked in so that was a big key to the game.” The Bisons went on several runs throughout the game, including a 12-3 run to give them a 40-25 lead at the end of the first half. However, the Highlanders narrowed the Bisons’ lead to just 45-42 with 13 minutes to play in the second half. From then on, the Bisons were able to outscore the Highlanders 32-21 to lock up the victory. “We knew that after the first half that we had that they were going to...
by Grant Ledgister | Feb 2, 2020 | News Slider, Sports
Poor shooting in the second half doomed the Lady Bisons in the first game of Saturday’s basketball doubleheader against the Stetson Hatters, as Lipscomb fell 48-34. The game got off to an interesting start with a jump ball on the tip-off that caused a re-tip. From there until the end of the half, things were slow going for both teams. Stetson’s junior forward Day’neshia Banks scored first to give the Hatters a two-point lead within the first minute but scoring dried up from there. It would be nearly three minutes before either team would score another basket. Stetson scored all of the early baskets, jumping out to a 6-0 lead. Lipscomb’s senior guard Carleigh Short responded with a three-pointer to open the scoring for the Lady Bisons and started a 9-1 run that gave them a 9-7 lead at the end of the first quarter. Neither team scored a basket for the first five minutes of the second quarter. The drought ended when freshman guard Kimia Carter scored a two-pointer for the Hatters to tie the game at nine. A heartwarming moment happened for Lipscomb near the end of the quarter. Sophomore forward Kailey Rosenbaum checked in to a game for the first time all season. Neither team shot very well in the half. The Lady Bisons went 7-27 from the field, and the Hatters went a slightly better 8-23. Lipscomb had a 19-17 lead with three seconds to go in a quarter where neither team led by more than four points. Stetson got the ball up the court and junior guard Tonysha Curry scored a layup as time expired...
by Grant Ledgister | Jan 28, 2020 | News Slider, Sports
Mistakes and overwhelming defensive pressure saw Lipscomb drop its second conference game in a row to the Jacksonville University Dolphins 73-64. Lipscomb was competitive early, tying the game at seven with six minutes to go in the quarter. Two minutes later, with Lipscomb only down one, a 9-0 run began for Jacksonville, putting the team up 20-10. The run, fueled by missed shots and good rebounding play off those missed shots, came to an end with a pair of free throws stemming from a technical foul called on Jacksonville’s freshman guard Da’nasia Shaw. Lipscomb went on a 6-0 scoring run early in the second quarter before having it wiped out by an identical run from the Dolphins who went on to extend their lead to 30-17. Junior forward Taylor Clark and sophomore guard Jane Deason helped close the gap slightly to 36-25 at the end of the half. Jacksonville’s defense was stifling in the first half. The Dolphins played a full-court trap defense that looked to be beatable initially by the Lady Bisons offense. The team would throw a series of quick passes to find the open player for a score. This was not the case as the game went on. The pressure proved difficult to overcome and forced Lipscomb into bad shots and other costly mistakes. One such mistake was turnovers. Lipscomb committed 14 of them in the half, which led to 12 points for the Dolphins. Also costly for the Lady Bisons was fouling. The Dolphins shot 10 free throws in the first half, making nine of them. Despite the deficit, Lipscomb did have some bright spots...
