by Spencer Boehme | Nov 11, 2018 | News Slider, Sports
For the second time in as many years, the Lipscomb men’s soccer team is going to the NCAA tournament. In a brutally cold match at the Lipscomb Soccer Complex, the one-seeded Bisons beat the six-seeded Stetson Hatters by a score of 2-0 on Saturday night. It was a big moment for head coach Charles Morrow, who happily celebrated a Gatorade bath and posed for trophy pictures with his team after the game. “It’s real good to be back here again and get another crack at trying to move on, and get to the NCAA tournament and see what we can do there,” Morrow said. Redshirt senior forward Logan Paynter scored two goals and received the ASUN Tournament MVP. To make the night even more memorable, Paynter set Lipscomb’s program record for career goals by scoring the 34th and 35th tallies of his career. “My teammates did amazing to get me the ball in those spots,” Paynter said. “And, I mean we played such a great game all around, every single player.” Paynter’s first goal came in the 39th minute. It appeared that Stetson goalie Braeden Luna would recover the ball off a slow bounce, but it instead went past him and into the net, giving Lipscomb a 1-0 lead. In the 53rd minute, redshirt sophomore midfielder Ben Locke passed the ball to Paynter, who outran his defender and booted it past Luna for the second and final tally of the night. “I sure do hope we’re going to work hard to showcase what he can do in the NCAA tournament and showcase what he can do [for] pro teams,”...
by Russell Vannozzi | Nov 11, 2018 | News Slider, Sports
Lipscomb didn’t play its smoothest basketball on Saturday, but the result still turned out just fine. The Bisons topped Tennessee State by a score of 86-79 at Allen Arena as Lipscomb alumni and fans descended on campus for Homecoming Weekend. “[TSU] really played with more passion and energy than we did for a lot of the night,” Lipscomb coach Casey Alexander said. “But I give our guys great credit for just staying with it in a tough game where it wasn’t smooth and [still] finding a way to win.” Lipscomb (2-0) led just 41-40 at halftime, and the contest remained tight throughout. But Lipscomb big man Eli Pepper came through with a reverse layup with 7:40 remaining, and the Bisons never trailed after that point. Garrison Mathews delivered the dagger when he swished a three-pointer with 26 seconds left. He finished with 23 points, while junior Kenny Cooper led the team with a career-high 24 points. “It’s been a long time coming, but I feel like I can let loose and play my game,” Cooper said. “I’m a third-year guy now, so [the coaches] expect [a lot] of me. I take that to heart, and I know what I can do.” Pepper delivered perhaps the most complete performance of his college career, posting 19 points and 17 rebounds in 33 minutes played. “[He] gave us a huge lift,” Alexander said. “That’s a guy that’s really stepping up and doing what he can to help the team.” Newly-hired TSU head coach Brian “Penny” Collins played for Belmont from 2002-06 while Alexander was on the team’s staff, making for a friendly...
by Russell Vannozzi | Nov 10, 2018 | News Slider, Sports
The Lipscomb and Mississippi State women’s soccer teams entered uncharted territory in Starkville Friday evening. The two programs were both making their first-ever NCAA tournament appearances, but it was the Lady Bisons that pulled out a stunning, 1-0 victory in Golden Goal to advance to the second round. Neither team scored in regulation or overtime, forcing the match to go into sudden-death overtime. Lipscomb junior defender Dominique Diller launched a free kick from midfield, and the ball found its way through several players and into the box. The pass then bounced off the head of senior Justis Bailey and into the net. GOLDEN. GOAL.#NCAASoccer pic.twitter.com/HjeeSvSiWm — NCAA Soccer (@NCAASoccer) November 10, 2018 Bailey had her back turned to the kick and was simply in the right place at the right time. The goal set off a wild celebration as the Lady Bisons became Lipscomb’s first team to advance to the second round of the NCAA tournament in any sport. Senior goalkeeper Kate Mason made seven saves for her ninth clean sheet of the season. The ASUN Goalie of the Year also made a highlight-reel save to keep the game scoreless with 22 minutes remaining. .What.A.Play… this merits a replay & @SportsCenter #Top10 play consideration! ? #SCtop10 #Saveoftheweek ? by @kateemasonn #FullStretch #Ncaasoccer #CollegeCup @espnW @nwslville @NWSL @NCAASoccer @LipscombWSOC @LipscombBisons #SecondRound here we come! pic.twitter.com/S5xhJHCeio — Shannon O'Brien (@ObShannon) November 10, 2018 Lipscomb will take on Duke in the second round of the tournament. The game is set for Friday, Nov. 16 in Washington, D.C. Start time and television information have yet to be...
by Carly Reams | Nov 10, 2018 | News Slider, Sports
The Lipscomb Lady Bisons opened their season with a nail-biting 64-62 win against Tennessee State Friday in Allen Arena. For the Lady Bisons, who lost a significant number of seniors last year, it was a matter of getting a young roster composed. Lauren Rau, a starting guard for Lipscomb, made the game-winning layup for the Lady Bisons. Rau said the veterans of the team struggled early on and thought the freshman came up huge for them tonight. “We were able to have the freshman exposed to something like this, the first game or the season,” Rau said. “We just needed them to play together.” It was neck-and-neck for the majority of the game. At the end of the first quarter, Lipscomb was down just two points to the Tigers. The Bisons cut the lead to one at the start of the third, but made a run to take a five-point lead at the buzzer. It seemed that Lipscomb’s lead would hold through the last five minutes of play. But in the final stretch, TSU picked up momentum thanks to some Lady Bison turnovers, cutting the score to 53-52. Coach Greg Brown said the biggest challenge would be tightening up his team’s ball handling. “We need to figure out a way not to turn the ball over as many times as we did,” Brown said. “But still pulling out a win and not taking care of the ball is a testament in just finding a way to win it.” With less than two minutes on the clock, TSU found themselves down by only two. With only twelve seconds left, TSU stole...
by Erin Franklin | Nov 9, 2018 | News Slider, Sports
Lipscomb may now be achieving prominent status in Division 1 athletics, but it hasn’t forgotten about the NAIA powerhouse it once was. As part of the annual Homecoming festivities, Lipscomb will be inducting seven new members into its sports Hall of Fame: Brent McNutt, Wes Wilkerson, Emily Pleasant High, Sarah Marcrom McKamey, Wade Tomlinson, Marcus Bodie and Lynn Griffith. Athletic Director Philip Hutcheson, who is a member of the Hall of Fame himself, said this round of inductees is beginning to wrap up the NAIA years. “Right now, we’re at an interesting moment, because we’re just kind of wrapping up, I would say, the NAIA era, in terms of the Hall of Fame part of it,” Hutcheson said. “We’ll never…[stop to] appreciate and recognize its history, but in terms of people who are in the Hall of Fame from that era, now we’ll soon be thinking about the NCAA era.” Part of the stipulation for being inducted into the Hall of Fame is that he or she must have finished playing at Lipscomb for at least 10 years. Hutcheson said he thinks this allows a perspective of time in order to look back and compare, in addition to allowing the recipients to have a period of time for the award to perhaps be more meaningful to them. The first year Lipscomb was fully eligible for NCAA competition was 2003. If a student-athlete played for the entirety of his collegiate career under the NCAA, he would have finished around 2007 or 2008, just now hitting the 10-year mark. Video package by author Notably, two of the seven players to be...
by Russell Vannozzi | Nov 7, 2018 | News Slider, Sports
The last time the Lipscomb men’s basketball team took the court, it was for the school’s NCAA tournament debut against powerhouse North Carolina. Center Ahsan Asadullah was forced to watch that game on the bench while rehabbing an ACL injury. But on Tuesday night, the 6-foot-9 big man made his presence felt by leading the Bisons with 26 points in a 97-53 drubbing of Division-III Sewanee at Allen Arena. The Tigers more closely resembled a strong high school squad than a college team and were simply outmatched from the beginning, despite Lipscomb not being at its best. “It definitely helped,” Asadullah said of playing a weaker opponent. “We got to run some of our sets and stuff instead of [just] practicing against each other. [But we] knew it wasn’t going to be easy even though [they] were a D-III school.” Asadullah admirably filled in for Rob Marberry, who missed the game due to a hand injury. It’s unclear when the senior forward will be back in action, which could pose a problem in next Thursday’s Battle of the Boulevard against rival Belmont. “He’ll probably be back soon – he’s been practicing,” Lipscomb coach Casey Alexander said of Marberry. “We know we need him for us to be as good as we can be.” Asadullah missed the entirety of the 2017-18 season after tearing his ACL last fall, and he said he felt some nerves during warmups. But you wouldn’t have known that by watching his nearly-flawless performance. “A couple of us were a little nervous,” Asadullah said. “I know I was a little nervous. My first shot got blocked,...
