by Danny Kotula | Mar 3, 2022 | News Slider, Sports
NASHVILLE – The Lipscomb women’s basketball team lost 60-42 to the North Florida Ospreys Wednesday night at Allen Arena in the ASUN Tournament First Round. “Our kids came out and battled defensively, especially in the first 30 minutes,” Lipscomb head coach Lauren Sumski said. “We executed the gameplan and did a really good job making them play the way we wanted to; we just really struggled to make shots today.” Lipscomb went 15-57 as a team for a 26% mark on field goals, including 7-32 at the three-point line. Despite 21 points and 12 rebounds from sophomore guard Jalyn Holcomb, including a double-double at halftime, the Bisons scored their lowest total of the season, including just eight points in the first and fourth quarters. “I thought Jalyn [Holcomb] played well,” Sumski said. “She made a lot of shots, but beyond that I think she stepped it up defensively compared to the last time we played [UNF].” Outside of Holcomb’s 5-7, the Bisons went 2-25 from beyond the arc. Sharpshooting guards Sydney Shelton and Blythe Pearson combined to go 1-14 from the three-point line, an uncharacteristic night for both. Shelton, a graduate guard from Greenfield, Indiana, was visibly emotional as she stepped off the court for the final time in Purple and Gold. “Those shots just didn’t fall,” Sumski said. “We knew we were going to get different looks where they were going to switch some, [and] we knew in those situations which ways we wanted them to rotate and where the shots would come from. “We did a good job finding those, but we just didn’t convert them.” Despite...
by Danny Kotula | Mar 2, 2022 | News Slider, Sports
NASHVILLE – The Lipscomb men’s basketball team used a 28-point performance from center Ahsan Asadullah to win 74-65 over the North Florida Ospreys in the First Round of the 2022 ASUN Tournament. “When you get to conference tournament time, it’s one and done, and I thought it was our best defensive effort tonight,” Lipscomb head coach Lennie Acuff said. “From tip to horn, I thought we played really, really hard.” A fourth-year junior from Atlanta, Asadullah shot 12-20 from the field and added 12 rebounds and 6 assists. Asadullah was named as a First Team All-ASUN selection for the third straight year after leading the team in points, rebounds, assists, and blocks. Graduate forward Parker Hazen added 17 points inside for the Bisons, highlighting a dominant display in the paint against UNF. Hazen added 7 rebounds and went 6-8 from the free throw line. The Bisons only went 3-15 on three-pointers over the course of the game, with freshman Trae Benham held under 10 points for the first time in four games. To compensate, Lipscomb scored 46 points in the paint to North Florida’s 26. “Between [Asadullah and Hazen], you’ve got 45 points, 19 rebounds, and 9 assists, so that’s a pretty good night at the office,” Acuff said. “Before the game, we knew that they were probably going to play us one-on-one,” Asadullah said of his matchup against the Ospreys. “I knew I had to look out for them taking charges, but I knew I had to just make the adjustment.” UNF head coach Matthew Driscoll was complimentary of Asadullah and the difficulty he created on the evening...
by Danny Kotula | Feb 28, 2022 | News Slider, Sports
For a college basketball fan, nothing beats the excitement of early March. Late-game heroics, surprising upsets, and winner-take-all pressure have become much more expectation than exception in recent years. For the Lipscomb women’s and men’s basketball teams, the mayhem that is March basketball starts with the ASUN Tournament. The ASUN Tournament offers a trip to the NCAA National Tournament to its winner, a prize that few mid-major teams would achieve without the automatic bid. While most conference tournaments take place at a single host site, the ASUN Tournament is one of four in which the higher seed in each individual game hosts the game. The ASUN Conference has 12 teams, all of which compete in the conference’s postseason tournament. While neither of Lipscomb’s teams are in strong position to win the ASUN title this year, all it takes is four straight wins to qualify for March Madness–and again, surprising moments aren’t quite so surprising in March. Both the men’s and women’s teams earned a 4-seed in the West Division with wins on the final day of the regular season last Saturday. As a result, both teams get to host one final game at Allen Arena this week in the ASUN Tournament’s first round. Though first-round home games are in hand early this week, Lipscomb will set their sights on continuing to win and making the next two weeks last as long as possible. Here’s a look at how far each team can take their postseason and what their chances are of going all the way. Men’s Tournament Lipscomb enters the 2022 ASUN Tournament at a low point for the...
by Danny Kotula | Feb 27, 2022 | News Slider, Sports
NASHVILLE – The Lipscomb women’s basketball team defeated the Central Arkansas Sugar Bears 50-46 Saturday afternoon at Allen Arena on senior day. With the win, Lipscomb secures at least one more game at Allen Arena for Sydney Shelton and Taylor Hammack, the two players graduating after this season. Seeding advantages for the ASUN Tournament next week were on the line in a battle between ASUN West Division teams deadlocked at 4-11 in conference play, and the stakes were evident from opening tip. Neither side could manage any offensive momentum early, but UCA had the advantage in the early going. The Sugar Bears grew an early lead to 9-1 at the 3:48 mark in the first quarter, riding strong defense to the largest lead of the game for either team. “They’re probably one of the best teams in our league as far as being dominant in the post,” assistant coach Chris Sumski said, “but I think we did a good job sticking to our guns.” A pair of three-pointers from sophomore Jalyn Holcomb and junior Blythe Pearson, respectively, helped Lipscomb make an 8-2 run to cut the lead to two after the first frame. True freshman Bella Vinson scored a buzzer-beating layup inside to cap off the run and make the score 11-9 at the break. Vinson finished with a team-leading 12 points and added four rebounds for the Bisons. “My teammates have been scoring, so they opened up the floor for me,” Vinson said. “I’m glad I could convert this game.” Vinson scored again early in the second quarter on a three to give Lipscomb their first lead at...
by Parker O'Neal | Feb 27, 2022 | News Slider, Sports
NASHVILLE – The Lipscomb men’s basketball team beat the Central Arkansas Bears at a score of 81-66 on senior day. The first half exhibited a close affair between two equal teams in the conference standings. Earlier in the year, the Bears came out on top in a competitive 93-88 win in Conway, Arkansas. Freshman guard Trae Benham shot lights-out in the first half to tally 16 points. Benham shot 6-9 from the field and contributed four of Lipscomb’s five made three-pointers in the half. Greg Jones, a Frisco, Texas-born guard and one of two seniors honored on Senior Day, had an efficient start to the half, going 2-3 from the field. Jones threw an assist across the court to lead to Benham’s last three of the half to take a 29-27 lead. After a quick Bears run, freshman forward Jacob Ognacevic finished on a second-chance layup after a block from Parker Hazen, a graduate forward from Columbia City, Indiana. With that basket, the Bisons cut the UCA’s lead to two points by half. Beginning in the second half, the Bisons started to pull away. The home side shot 63% from the field and outscored the Bears 50-33 in the half. Junior center Ahsan Asadullah, a two-time All-ASUN First Team player, heated up in the second half as the Bears proved unable to stop him in the paint. Asadullah would also accumulate a game-high 10 rebounds and six assists for the Bisons. Despite Eddy Kayouloud’s 22 points, the Central Arkansas forward was not enough against the Bisons’ quicker play. “We came out and played a complete game in the second...
by Parker O'Neal | Feb 26, 2022 | News Slider, Sports
NASHVILLE – The Lipscomb baseball team defeated the Bradley Braves 14-0 Friday afternoon at Dugan Field in a one-game conference matchup. Pitcher Kaleb Kantola, a native of Monmouth, Oregon, improved to 2-0 on the season as the starting pitcher on the win. In five innings pitched, Kantola earned 10 strikeouts to total 15 strikeouts on the year. Kantola had a perfect game through three innings pitched; however, the Bisons were also able to take advantage of five walked batters in the second inning to score five runs in back-to-back innings. Senior third baseman Malik Williams had two hits for three at-bats to tally six RBIs. Williams earned two RBIs off a triple and hit his third home run of the season in the fifth inning to stretch Lipscomb’s lead to 14 runs. Maddux Houghton, a senior from Dalton, Georgia, had a game-high three runs on the day and converted on a double in the second inning to continue the lights-out performance by the Bisons early in the game. After Lipscomb’s blazing start in the second and third innings, the Braves could not recover. The Bisons finished with six runs and zero errors on the day. The game ended in the seventh inning with a mutual agreement. Last weekend, Lipscomb won the series 2-1 against the Akron Zips. With the win today, the Bisons improve to 3-1 on the season and will play the Pittsburgh Panthers from the ACC in a two-game series. The Bisons and Panthers will square off in game one of the series 3 p.m. Saturday at Dugan Field. The game will also be broadcast on the Lipscomb Bisons...
