The Lady Bisons could not quite take down the Goliath of Atlantic Sun women’s basketball on Monday night, falling to Florida Gulf Coast (19-3, 5-0 ASUN) by a score of 68-54.
Lipscomb hung tough throughout the entire game until the last few minutes.
“You can’t judge anything that you do by the final score,” Lipscomb coach Greg Brown said. “I think we can look at our intensity.”
The Lady Bisons (6-14, 2-3 ASUN) went on a 10-0 run late in the third quarter to pull even at 48. FGCU’s largest lead throughout the game was eight until the final five minutes, when the Eagles closed on a 20-6 run.
Brown was pleased with his team after the game. The Eagles are ranked #1 among mid-major schools by College Insider and have also received votes in the AP Top 25 Poll.
“Your margin of error is very small,” Coach Brown said. “I’m very proud of what we were able to do, and I think it’s big for them to understand that they are capable of doing a lot of things.”
The Lady Bisons relied heavily on the scoring of senior Loren Cagle and freshman Taylor Clark. Cagle led all scorers with 20 points, and Clark added 14.
Redshirt freshman Emily Kmec scored just three points in the game on one-of-nine shooting, despite averaging 10 points per game this season. Coach Brown was not worried about her performance.
“She’s a good shooter,” Coach Brown said. “That’ll happen. She still had seven rebounds, deflections, one assist, no turnovers and a blocked shot, so there’s always more ways to contribute. Her length helps her contest shots on the perimeter, so I’m not worrying about her shooting.”
FGCU leads the NCAA in three-point shots attempted and came into Monday shooting 34.9% from beyond the arc on the year. They finished the game going 13-for-44 (29.5%) from three-point range and 23-for-62 (37.1%) from the field.
The Eagles extended their winning streak against Lipscomb to twenty-one games in a row, dating back to their first matchup in 2008.
The two teams will meet again on February 17th in Fort Myers, Fla.
The Lady Bisons take on the New Jersey Institute of Technology Highlanders (3-17, 1-4 ASUN) in Newark, N.J. Saturday at 12:00 PM.
Image courtesy of Lipscomb Athletics