Mistakes and overwhelming defensive pressure saw Lipscomb drop its second conference game in a row to the Jacksonville University Dolphins 73-64.
Lipscomb was competitive early, tying the game at seven with six minutes to go in the quarter.
Two minutes later, with Lipscomb only down one, a 9-0 run began for Jacksonville, putting the team up 20-10. The run, fueled by missed shots and good rebounding play off those missed shots, came to an end with a pair of free throws stemming from a technical foul called on Jacksonville’s freshman guard Da’nasia Shaw.
Lipscomb went on a 6-0 scoring run early in the second quarter before having it wiped out by an identical run from the Dolphins who went on to extend their lead to 30-17. Junior forward Taylor Clark and sophomore guard Jane Deason helped close the gap slightly to 36-25 at the end of the half.
Jacksonville’s defense was stifling in the first half. The Dolphins played a full-court trap defense that looked to be beatable initially by the Lady Bisons offense. The team would throw a series of quick passes to find the open player for a score.
This was not the case as the game went on. The pressure proved difficult to overcome and forced Lipscomb into bad shots and other costly mistakes.
One such mistake was turnovers. Lipscomb committed 14 of them in the half, which led to 12 points for the Dolphins.
Also costly for the Lady Bisons was fouling. The Dolphins shot 10 free throws in the first half, making nine of them.
Despite the deficit, Lipscomb did have some bright spots on offense. Clark and senior guard Carleigh Short combined to score the Lady Bisons’ first 10 points.
Lipscomb cut the lead to 40-33 at the third media timeout courtesy of two three-pointers from freshman guard Jalyn Holcomb and a layup from Clark. Lipscomb also switched to a press defense during this time, which helped slow down but didn’t eliminate the Dolphins’ scoring.
Jacksonville, meanwhile, was able to abandon its press defense as they took a 55-44 lead into the fourth quarter.
Fouls hurt the Lady Bisons in the third quarter. The Dolphins attempted another six free throws, and both Clark (four fouls) and freshman guard Casey Collier (three) had to spend time on the bench.
After a made three by Jacksonville, a two-minute stretch of no scoring for either team came to an end with 7:13 to play when Short made a layup to drop the lead to 58-46.
Lipscomb was down 63-49 coming out of the final media timeout. A 7-3 Jacksonville run from that point to the two-minute mark put the game out of Lipscomb’s reach.
The Dolphins rebounded the ball extremely well, with 15 of their 43 rebounds coming on the offensive side of the court.
Jacksonville improves to 11-8 (3-3 ASUN) and Lipscomb falls to 5-15 (2-5 ASUN).
Lipscomb will host Stetson on Saturday at 1:30 to try and earn its third conference win.