For as difficult as the 2018-19 season was for the Lipscomb women’s basketball team, it couldn’t have ended in a better way.
Junior Carleigh Short banked a three just as the clock expired in overtime, giving the Lady Bisons a 72-69 victory over Kennesaw State at Allen Arena Tuesday.
“The basketball gods smiled on us for once this season,” Lipscomb coach Greg Brown said. “It’s good to end that way and get a little bit of momentum to carry us forward.”
Lipscomb closed the year with a dismal 4-25 record (2-14 ASUN) and missed the conference tournament for the first time since 2013. The Lady Bisons averaged 21 turnovers per game and shot just 34 percent from the field for the season.
“It’s wild how well we’ve played at times versus how poorly we played at other times,” Brown said. “It’s been one extreme or the other. They continued to practice hard and do things well, but they just hadn’t been rewarded.”
Was Tuesday’s victory a sign of good things to come? The evidence says that’s a possibility.
The Lady Bisons don’t have any seniors, so their entire roster will return, including top scorers Taylor Clark (11.1 PPG) and Lauren Rau (8.5 PPG).
Kaylee Cotton took a redshirt due to an injury and will be back next season. They’ve also added three high school signees, and Butler transfer Sydney Shelton will be eligible after sitting out this year.
“Not having a senior is definitely weird, but it also gave the freshman and us juniors time to mature,” Short said. “I really think that next year, with three new people coming in and not losing anybody, this is just the start.”
Shelton should provide an immediate boost. The Indiana native was named to the Big East All-Freshman team two years ago after averaging 8.8 points and 2.6 rebounds while knocking down 49 three-point attempts.
“She can shoot the [three], the mid-range, and she can finish at the rim,” Brown said. “That’ll open some stuff up for [other] people.”
Lipscomb’s three signees include guards Casey Collier (Knoxville, Tenn.), Jalyn Holcomb (Murfreesboro, Tenn.) and Blythe Pearson (Overland Park, Kansas).
Brown described Collier as “a true point guard,” while Holcomb starred at nearby Riverdale High School and is the daughter of former NFL quarterback Kelly Holcomb. Pearson is ranked as the No. 72 guard in the nation by ESPN.com.
Couple the newcomers with Lipscomb’s six current freshmen (Jane Deason, Gabi Grillon, Taylor Hammack, Keely Morrow, Kailey Rosenbaum, Gracie Simpson) and suddenly the team’s roster appears to be deeper.
“The freshman got minutes in a lot of key [situations], and I think they’ll mature pretty quickly,” Brown said. “They’ve done some good things for us – we’re getting there.”
Deason (7.2 PPG), Morrow (6.0 PPG) and Rosenbaum (5.9 PPG) played the biggest roles of this year’s freshman class. Each of the three figure to be important pieces, and possibly full-time starters, next year.
“All of the freshman stepped up big when they needed to,” Short said. “I’m really excited to see them grow as players. They’ve got a year under their belt and they’ll be ready to go next season.”
For now, Brown and his staff are tasked with analyzing what went wrong this season to try to prevent it from happening again.
“It’s a post-mortem at [this] point,” Brown said. “We’ll go back through things we did well and what we’ve got to work on. We’ve seen what we’ve got to do to improve.”
Photos by McKenzi Harris