by Danny Kotula | Dec 21, 2021 | News Slider, Sports
CHARLESTON, Illinois – The Lipscomb women’s basketball team beat the Eastern Illinois Panthers 54-47 Monday afternoon at Lantz Arena in Charleston, Illinois. With the win, the Lady Bisons broke a number of bad streaks this season, getting their first win against OVC opposition (1-3), their first win outside of Allen Arena (1-4) and their first win against a Division I opponent (1-7). “It was so fun,” senior center Dorie Harrison said. “It was about being consistent. Things don’t always go our way, but we’re learning to respond to adversity better and keep doing the right thing no matter what,” the Nashville native said. It was a tight game from the get-go, as the teams traded buckets in the first quarter. The Bisons scored four straight points to gain the biggest lead of the quarter at 16-11, and the quarter ended with Lipscomb holding a 16-13 advantage behind six points from Harrison. Despite picking up two fouls in the first quarter, Harrison led the team in points and rebounds with 16 and 12, respectively. She earned a double-double for the second time this year and matched her season-high points total. “We just stuck to the gameplan, just matching steps, making sure I stayed down,” Harrison said. “We watched film, we prepared like any game. I think we did a better job of executing the gameplan, all five of us.” Her performance inside did not go unnoticed. “ [Harrison] did a great job of not only scoring, but getting us second and third chances with the effort that she gave,” assistant coach Chris Sumski said. That defensive-minded, too-close-to-call narrative of the...
by Danny Kotula | Dec 20, 2021 | News Slider, Sports
The Lipscomb men’s basketball team defeated the Tennessee Wesleyan Bulldogs 98-64 Sunday afternoon at Allen Arena. An unconvincing first half saw the Bisons trail for the majority of the first frame against TWU, a member of NAIA’s Appalachian Athletic Conference. The Bulldogs led Lipscomb by as many as 5, but Lipscomb took the lead for good with 8:40 in the first half. TWU shot 44% from the 3-point line in the first half, scoring 21 points beyond the arc to keep them in the game at halftime with just a 53-43 deficit. “[I was] pretty proud of our guys in that second half,” assistant coach Kevin Carroll said. “We did not have our best effort defensively, obviously, in the first half, and I really did not feel that our intensity and focus was there. “In the second half, we corrected that, as we should have. The communication on the floor was tremendously better, and it really showed and led to a lot of our points on the offensive end,” Carroll said. Second-year freshman Jacob Ognacevic scored 35 points for a career-high outing for the Bisons. The Sheboygan, Wisconsin-born power forward went 12-15 from the field and made 9 of 16 free throws, adding 6 rebounds. “Obviously, Jacob is a great player,” Carroll said. “Most importantly, I thought our guys really looked for him and gave him good opportunities to catch and convert around the rim.” He probably could have had well over 40 if he had his normal day from the [free throw] line,” Carroll said. Graduate transfer forward Parker Hazen pulled down a game-leading 9 rebounds and added...
by Danny Kotula | Dec 19, 2021 | News Slider, Sports
MURRAY, Kentucky – The Lipscomb women’s basketball team lost a 74-50 decision to the Murray State Racers Saturday evening at CFSB Center in Murray, Kentucky. An outing full of disappointment left the Bisons without a win over Division I opposition on the season and continued a difficult run of games after losing 50-49 to Tennessee State Wednesday. A Racers squad that entered the game at 7-2 on the year certainly had Lipscomb’s respect going in, but the pervasive feeling in the locker room was that the team still could have done much better on the night than their performance showed. “I definitely credit them a lot,” assistant coach Chris Sumski said. “They’re a really good team, but I think we’re a much better team than what we showed tonight.” Sumski acted as the head coach for the second straight game in the absence of his wife, head coach Lauren Sumski. “Honestly, we’re just trying to hold it down as best we can until she gets back,” Sumski said after a noticeable pause to collect himself. “But the culture that she’s built, we should be able to keep things rolling even when she’s not here.” Despite leading the team with 11 points, it was a visibly frustrating night for sophomore guard Blythe Pearson. The Overland Park, Kansas-born shooting guard hit 3-4 from deep and pulled down a team-leading 8 rebounds as well, but all 11 points from the Bisons’ leading scorer came in the second half, when it was largely too late to affect the result. “It started at the beginning of the game,” Pearson said. “We didn’t come out...
by Abigail Kopp | Dec 16, 2021 | News Slider, Sports
The Lipscomb women’s basketball team suffered an agonizing loss to the Tennessee State Tigers 50-49 Wednesday night at Allen Arena. Sophomore guard Blythe Pearson scored 20 points for the Bisons, adding 7 rebounds as well. Pearson went 7-11 from the field, shooting 64%. Senior center Dorie Harrison added 11 points for Lipscomb. The Kentucky transfer pulled down 16 rebounds, a season high. “Honestly, we kinda got rattled by the press,” assistant coach Colsten Thompson said. “They’re super athletic with a type of defense we haven’t really seen yet.” The first quarter was a close battle on the court, both teams swinging back and forth with baskets, ending at 8-8. Cook led off with 4 points for the team, Collier and Hemphill both adding two for the team. Defense played fantastically on both teams, putting up a fight for anyone to make an easy shot. In the second quarter the Bisons fell behind at 15-14, Tennessee State making a big run at the start, but Lipscomb pulled ahead making a series of shots to catch up. Harrison made 6 of the 14 shots for the Bisons, Vinson coming in second with five for her team, Pearson making three points. Static energy enveloped the court as our team was one point behind at 23-22 for halftime. “Once we got settled into the rhythm coming out into the second half, we were able to kinda get going defensively a bit,” Thompson said. Starting off with a three-pointer, Pearson made another and ended with a three-pointer, giving her team 9 points in the third quarter. Jordan Peete blew out her shoes, needing a...
by Danny Kotula | Dec 13, 2021 | News Slider, Sports
The Lipscomb men’s basketball team continued a poor run of form in a 65-73 loss to the Tennessee State Tigers Sunday afternoon at Allen Arena. Down by 11 at the break and as many as 19 during the second half, the Bisons were unable to complete a last-gasp comeback effort to take down TSU. “We’ve just got to be better in the first half,” point guard Will Pruitt said. “We had 10 turnovers coming out of the first half, and I for myself have just got to be better, and we’ve got to be better as a team.” “We were fighting back in the second half, which is tough,” Pruitt said. Pruitt, a redshirt freshman from Mt. Juliet, Tennessee, led the Bisons in scoring with 14 points. Pruitt, who fouled out in the final minute of the game and committed four turnovers, added three steals for the Bisons and was a perfect 6-6 at the free throw line. Senior forward Parker Hazen added 12 points and 6 rebounds for the Bisons. The former Iowa Western Community College and Valparaiso player went 2-5 from the 3-point line. A pair of offensive weapons struggled uncharacteristically for Lipscomb on a night where almost nothing went right. Second-year freshman forward Jacob Ognacevic, the team’s leading scorer, put up just 7 points, while sharpshooting guard Greg Jones shot just 2-8 from distance and ended with 10 points. As a whole, Lipscomb shot just 10-26 from the floor in the first half, while TSU shot an even 50%, going 16-32. The Tigers also shot 45% from beyond the arc, making 5-11 at the 3-point line....
by Danny Kotula | Dec 13, 2021 | News Slider, Sports
The Lipscomb women’s basketball team beat the Tennessee Wesleyan University Bulldogs 86-44 Sunday afternoon at Allen Arena. Five players scored in double figures for the Bisons, and four earned career-high scoring totals in Purple and Gold. One player who reached both those achievements was true freshman wing Katherine Weakley, who finished with 11 points on 4-10 shooting. The Worthington, Ohio-born guard went 3-8 from behind the 3-point line and added 2 rebounds to her line. “I started off kinda slow,” Weakley said, “but we picked up our energy after halftime. We started talking more, and I think that helped pick up the pace of the game. Some shots went in, and it’s because we were having great passes and moving the ball on offense.” “We’ve been working on [that] a lot in practice this past week, trying to pass up the good shots to get great shots,” Weakley said. “That’s why we shot so well and everybody was able to contribute in different ways.” Leading the Bisons in scoring was junior transfer Maddie Cook, who shot an efficient 6-7 from the floor for 12 points. Cook, who transferred from Belmont last year, also added 6 rebounds. Sophomore guard Blythe Pearson shot 3-7 from the 3-point line en route to 11 points for Lipscomb, adding 4 rebounds and 4 assists in a team-leading 24 minutes for the Bisons. The home side dominated the first quarter, using stifling defense to work up a 14-point advantage after one quarter. Cook scored 6 to pace the Bisons as they took a 21-7 advantage into the second period. A 10-3 run midway through the...
