Lack of shot accuracy and a stout Belmont defense haunted the Lipscomb women’s basketball team on Tuesday night, as they lost 83-43 to Belmont at the Curb Event Center in the annual Battle of the Boulevard.
Belmont spread the ball well, as junior forward Ellie Harmeyer and freshman forward Conley Chinn each scored 15 points.
“Well, they’re just solid,” Lipscomb head coach Greg Brown said. “Their positioning, I mean, is exactly what we thought it would be. They did a great job taking the paint away and making [us] shoot over-the-top.”
The Bruins (5-3) out-rebounded the Lady Bisons, 49-27. Brown attributed that statistic to his team’s “lack of pursuit.”
“You gotta get to the weak-side boards, and when you get there, you have to pursue [the ball]” Brown said.
Freshman guard Jane Deason put up a team-high 11 points on 3-of-10 field goal shooting for the Lady Bisons. Junior guard Lauren Rau led the Lady Bisons with 4 assists and tied for a second-best nine points.
“I thought Jane and Lauren Rau played hard,” Brown said. “I thought they did — tried to do some things well. We still just played too fast at times and [held] the ball too much.”
The Lady Bisons also suffered from a 23.6 shooting percentage (13-of-55 on field goals). They were also missing height on the court. Redshirt sophomore forward Emily Kmec and freshman forward Kailey Rosenbaum both did not play.
Things were competitive in the early-going. The Lady Bisons were only down 9-8 after a Carleigh Short three-pointer at the 6:37 mark.
But then the Bruins went on a 21-0 scoring run that extended into the second quarter. Rau broke the run with two free throws to put the score at 30-10 with 7:07 left in the second.
Belmont outscored the Lady Bisons 12-8 for the rest of the half.
Lipscomb narrowed its deficit to 19 points off another Rau free throw at the 7:51 mark in the third quarter, but the Bruins ended the quarter on a 19-5 scoring run.
The Bruins led 65-32 and outscored Lipscomb 18-11 in the fourth period.
The biggest statistical standout for the Lady Bisons was their limitation of Belmont’s star senior guard, Darby Maggard, to just eight points.
“Lauren [Rau] did a good job on Darby early on,” Brown said.
Maggard came into the game averaging a team-leading 14.6 points per game.
The Lady Bisons (2-6) return home to face UT Martin on Sunday. Tipoff is scheduled for 4 p.m., and the game can be heard live on Lumination Radio.
Photos by Mckenzi Harris