by Danny Kotula | Dec 30, 2021 | News Slider, Sports
The Lipscomb women’s basketball team lost to the Arizona State Sun Devils 70-54 Thursday afternoon in a hastily-scheduled non-conference contest at Weatherup Center in Tempe, Arizona. It was a bizarre game from the get-go in a matchup with just two days’ notice, as the Bisons replaced UCLA as ASU’s opponent when the Bruins could not play their originally scheduled game. Lipscomb’s schedule was opened up after their contest against Cincinnati was vacated due to COVID-19 protocols. “We prepared the same as always,” assistant coach Chris Sumski said in a statement. “Our players are ready to play any time, any place. Shout out to Arizona State for adding us to the schedule last minute after Cincinnati cancelled, even with a couple of their players out.” Due to lighting issues at Desert Financial Arena, their typical home venue, the matchup took place at Arizona State’s practice facility without fans and most media members. Leading the Bisons was sophomore guard Blythe Pearson, scoring a team-high 11 points and pulling down 5 rebounds. Senior center and Kentucky transfer Dorie Harrison added 9 points, 3 rebounds and a block, while 4th-year guard Casey Coller grabbed a team-leading 6 rebounds and played in all 40 minutes for Lipscomb. Lipscomb stayed step-for-step with ASU early on, as sophomore point guard Jordan Peete and Pearson matched a two- and three-pointer from the Sun Devils to make the score 5-5 three minutes in. Both teams scored efficiently in the first quarter, as the two sides combined to shoot 13-25, with Lipscomb shooting an unprecedented 60% from the floor. “Our team cares more about ‘we’ scoring than ‘I’ scoring,”...
by Danny Kotula | Dec 28, 2021 | News Slider, Radio, Sports
The Lipscomb women’s basketball team will no longer play their scheduled contest Wednesday at Cincinnati, according to a statement from Lipscomb Athletics Tuesday morning. Instead, the Bisons will travel to Arizona to play the Pac-12’s Arizona State Sun Devils. That game will take place 3 pm Central time Thursday in the Phoenix suburb of Tempe. For the third time this season, Lipscomb will travel to the western half of the country for an away game. The Bisons’ first two games came in Utah against BYU and Utah, respectively, and the Purple and Gold also played against the Colorado State Rams in November in Fort Collins, Colorado. The Bisons lost all three of those contests. Lipscomb’s second Pac-12 matchup this year will take place at Weatherup Center, Arizona State’s practice facility, due to the short notice. Because of the space limitations at the facility, fans and most media members are not permitted to attend. This will be the Sun Devils’ second-straight game at Weatherup Center after lighting issues at their primary facility, Desert Financial Arena, forced a venue switch in their win over UC Irvine. The Bisons are 5-7 on the year after a 4th-quarter comeback win last time out. Arizona State enters the game with a 7-5 record, having won 5 of their last 6 contests. The Sun Devils have a 5-1 record in home contests, while Lipscomb is just 1-5 away from home. The Bisons and Sun Devils will square off for the first time in series history. Their only common opponent this season is BYU, who beat both teams at home in Provo, Utah. Senior guard Jade...
by Gracie Simpson | Dec 26, 2021 | News Slider, Sports, Student Spotlight
Picking up your whole life in Barcelona, Spain, and moving to the U.S. to get a degree and play tennis isn’t the easiest thing to do. But this is exactly what fifth-year senior Gonzalo Garcia-Nieto did. “Once you get to a certain level where you get out of high school, you have to decide if you want to keep doing that sport and try to go professional or go pursue a college degree,” said Garcia-Nieto. “It is very hard to do both things at the same time [in Spain], so I thought that America was the perfect spot for me,” said Garcia-Nieto. While moving halfway around the world may sound difficult, it was easy compared to what he has dealt with since moving to the United States. A transfer from Tennessee Tech, a back injury that included surgery, and a pandemic later, he is happy to be at Lipscomb. “Whenever we got that extra year of eligibility, I knew I wanted to come back [to Lipscomb to play tennis],” said Garcia-Nieto. Right before COVID hit, the men’s tennis team was on track to win the conference tournament. Beginning the season 9-1, it was the best starting record in program history. “I believe as a team we have unfinished business. My first goal whenever I transferred here from Tennessee Tech was to win the conference tournament at Lipscomb,” said Garcia-Nieto. He now has two seasons at Lipscomb under his belt, and he is heading into his third season. Carlos Salas, a teammate, friend, and fellow native of Barcelona, Spain, praised Garcia-Nieto. “At the beginning, we didn’t get along very well...
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...
