Lady Bisons best visiting Bucs, earn place in A-Sun tourney

The Lady Bisons (6-22) put together one of their most complete efforts of the season in a 76-74 victory over the East Tennessee State Bucs (9-19) on Thursday night at Allen Arena. A go-ahead 3-pointer from junior guard Sara Bliss 13.8 seconds left gave Lipscomb a 74-72 lead, which they did not relinquish. The game started off on a good note for Lipscomb. Bliss secured the opening tip and euro-stepped her way to a 3-point play. She ended up with 14 points on the night including three 3’s. “I knew we were down, and I heard the bench yelling that the shot clock was going down, it was at five or six seconds,” Bliss said. “So, Chandler kicked it to me, and my coaches always tell me to shoot, so I shot.” “I’ll be as honest as I can be,” said Lady Bisons head coach Greg Brown, “We do that [play] every day. That’s another kick-out 3 for us. That’s the second time she’s done that. The best thing about it, it wasn’t run for her. We had three options that led to a great reversal pass to a wide open player.” Lipscomb shot well from behind the arc the entire night. The team finished 10-for-20 from deep in the game. Redshirt freshman guard Chandler Cooper and redshirt sophomore guard Danay Fothergill, along with Bliss, led the Lady Bisons with three long range baskets each. Cooper and Fothergill scored 16 and 19 points respectively in the contest. Redshirt sophomore forward Ashley Southern came up big for Lipscomb once again. Southern racked up 27 points, seven rebounds, three assists and a...

Lumination’s 2014 Oscar predictions

It’s that time of year again where all of the world’s movie nerds and pop culture aficionados rejoice.  This Sunday is the 86th Academy Awards. Lumination Entertainment Editor Logan Butts here with my predictions for the night’s major awards winners. Best Picture: 12 Years a Slave. With 13 months and hundreds of movies in the rear-view mirror, the race for best picture has been whittled down to three competitors: 12 Years a Slave, Gravity and American Hustle. At various points throughout the marathon that is awards season, both Gravity and American Hustle were the front-runners for the big prize, but now that it is time for the Oscars to finally happen, it looks like 12 Years a Slave has proven to be the film that will stand tall among a crowded Best Picture field. Best Director: Alfonso Cuaron. Gravity was undoubtedly the work of a director’s vision, and although Steve McQueen’s directorial work in 12 Years a Slave has just as many fans, I think Cuaron pulls out a victory due to the sheer magnitude of his accomplishment. Best Actor: Matthew McConaughey. In an unusually competitive race for this category, the “McConaissance” (the term McConaughey’s new career trajectory) will peak with a victory at the Oscars for his performance in Dallas Buyer’s Club. All five nominees could claim to still be alive for the win, but Chiwetel Ejiofor should provide the closest competition. Best Actress: Cate Blanchett. Despite a late run from Amy Adams multi-accented performance in American Hustle, Blanchett, for her work in Blue Jasmine, should already have her acceptance speech written. Best Supporting Actor: Jared Leto. Best Supporting...

Intramural basketball continues to find success with Lipscomb students

When stepping foot on any college campus across the country, you are bound to run into someone who participates in intramurals. They are a genuinely fun way to stay active and in shape without having to hit the gym or exercise by yourself at home. They can also be a way for former high school athletes to satisfy their competitive drive, despite not playing any sports for their university. Lipscomb offers a multitude of intramural sports for any students interested in playing. However, one sport always brings in more participants, and brings out more of those participants’ competitive spirit. That sport is basketball. “Basketball is the most popular of all the sports we’ve done this year,” said Evan McGee, a graduate assistant for campus recreation. McGee is in charge of the intramurals on campus, and he says more students signed up for basketball this semester than any of the other sports that they offer. There are three leagues for intramural basketball: the men’s independent league, which features a competitive and a recreational division, the women’s independent league, which has just one division and the social club league, where the school’s social clubs can form a team and compete against each other. In all, there are an astounding 39 teams competing in intramural basketball at Lipscomb this year, including 22 teams in the men’s recreational league alone. The rise of participants in the recreational league over the past few years can be attributed to the sheer difficulty of the competitive league, where it is not uncommon to see athletes from Lipscomb’s other sports teams playing on each team. There are...

Career day for Southern leads Lady Bisons past North Florida

Originally posted at LipscombSports.com  In a close game that saw multiple lead changes throughout, the Lipscomb women’s basketball came out on top Saturday afternoon against Atlantic Sun Conference foe North Florida 84-76 in Allen Arena. The victory gave Lipscomb their first back-to-back victories since wins over North Florida and Jacksonville in the 2011-12 season. The Lady Bisons (5-19, 2-11 A-Sun), who saw four out of five starters reach double digits in scoring, were led by Ashley Southern’s career high 29 points off of 12-of-17 shooting from the field. Southern also notched 12 rebounds and four assists in a prolific game for the sophomore. The Ospreys (5-17, 1-11 A-Sun) came out strong, starting off the game on a 14-3 run. Junior Destinee Smith, the Ospreys’ leading scorer, scored 11 points in the first five minutes of the game. North Florida held the lead for most of the first half, with the Lady Bisons pulling ahead for the first time with less than two minutes to go until halftime. After trading baskets for the final minutes of the first half, North Florida went into the locker room with a 43-42 lead. “Smith came out ready to go, and then we started doing what we were supposed to do in the first place,” said Lipscomb head coach Greg Brown, “We made a couple of adjustments, just making sure we were there with her coming off the screens. We were a little quicker getting to her. And then law of averages sometimes kicks in. They came out hitting everything, but we were able to slow them down.” Southern scored the first bucket of...

Changes redefine core of Lipscomb Greek life’s mission

For the 2014 spring semester, Greek life on Lipscomb’s campus will be in the midst of a redefining stage.  In the continuation of a process that started during the 2013 fall semester, both the campus life and Greek life teams are coming together to make Lipscomb a better place. The campaign to redefine Lipscomb’s social clubs has been spearheaded by Sam Smith, the associate dean of campus life, and Sam Parnell, the head of Greek life. Together, along with the International Code Council, they spent all of last semester fine-tuning the new club definition into the version seen today. “We’ve gone through a redefining stage of what Greek life is and what it means to be a part of Greek life,” Smith said. “What we’ve tried to do is we’ve tried to stage the setting for Greek life to be viewed in a positive light. This is the most powerful organization on campus. We want students to see it for how powerful and how good it is and really impact the reputation that it had by redefining what it will mean to be a part of Greek life.” One of the main goals of the redefinition process is to erase any lingering effects of what Smith called “a nationwide bad stigma” when people think of Greek life for any college, including Lipscomb. The plan is to highlight all of the positive aspects of Greek life, as well as to show what it can bring to the Lipscomb community, including non-Greek students. “I think nationwide there’s a bad stigma with Greek life,” Smith said. “They’re the frats – the sororities...