The Lipscomb men’s basketball team kicked off the 2021-22 season with a high-scoring 105-98 win over Division III opponents Birmingham-Southern.
The Bisons took control early, but had to weather various comeback efforts by the Panthers to win in their first game since bowing out of the ASUN Tournament in the first round last year.
Offensively, Sheboygan, Wisconsin-born Jacob Ognacevic led Lipscomb with 30 points, 7 rebounds, and an assist. It took his entire contribution for the Bisons to stave off an upset attempt by the Panthers, an old NAIA rival of the Bisons decades ago.
Jonathan Stewart provided 28 points for the Panthers on 10-for-15 shooting from the field. Stewart added 14 rebounds for a double-double in the loss for BSC.
“I’ll be honest: I don’t feel like we played particularly well”, assistant coach Kevin Carroll said. “Ahsan Asadullah is our go-to guy, and he just had kind of an off night tonight. Even JO [Ognacevic] had a couple of uncharacteristic misses.”
“The mark of a good team is finding different ways to win,” Carroll said. “There’s no one formula for winning. You’re going to play different teams that play different styles, but good teams just find a way to outlast the other team, and that’s what we did tonight.”
The Panthers kept it close throughout, staying within 10 points during the entire first period. Pacing the Panthers was Stewart, who poured in 10 points in the first half and kept Lipscomb honest defensively.
Freshman forward Jacob Ognacevic put up 12 of his 30 points in the first period, leading the way off the bench in his first appearance for the Bisons. The Valparaiso transfer went 8-of-9 from the free throw line and added 2 rebounds in the first half.
After running out to multiple 9-point leads down the stretch, Lipscomb was unable to hold onto their lead and settled for a 50-50 deadlock at the break. Kareem Abdul-Jabaar Player of the Year Preseason Watchlist honoree Ahsan Asadullah added six points and five rebounds to keep Lipscomb afloat in a high-scoring first 20 minutes.
With the game fully in the balance, Lipscomb started the second half much like the first, racing out to a quick lead on a 7-2 run.
Three minutes into the second period, though, the Bisons were dealt a serious blow when Asadullah fell hard in the paint going for a rebound. Asadullah spent five minutes on the floor but was able to walk off under his own power into the locker room.
With Asadullah injured and fellow big man Parker Hazen on three fouls early in the half, Lipscomb lost most of its inside presence and quickly lost its lead as well.
Birmingham-Southern took advantage of the momentum swing and made an 11-0 run, going ahead 63-57 with 14:37 to play.
Asadullah returned with under 14 to go, and the Bisons quickly righted the ship as Ognacevic scored 5 straight to cut the lead to 4.
At the 12:03 mark, Lipscomb had cut the lead to 68-66, and a true dogfight was set to ensue.
Behind second-year freshman Tommy Murr, the Bisons scored seven straight and earned a 73-68 lead with 10:19 to play.
From there, the two sides traded blows. Lipscomb relied on Asadullah and Ognacevic in the paint, but struggled to keep Southern off the board on the defensive end.
Fouls also played a problematic part in the game for the Bisons, as freshman guard Quincy Clark, Asadullah, and Hazen all picked up four fouls with six minutes still to play.
Meanwhile, the Bisons pushed their lead to 10 and claimed a 90-80 advantage with 5:57 on the clock on the back of three-pointers from Ognacevic and Clark.
Refusing to give up, BSC cut the lead back down to 6 with four straight points, making the score 90-84 in favor of the Purple and Gold.
Both sides kept scoring at a high clip, but it was the Bisons who stretched the lead to 10 once more ; with 3:04 to play, Lipscomb held a 96-86 advantage.
Birmingham-Southern cut the advantage to 7 with a 3-pointer at the 1:50 mark, keeping the away team in the conversation. In the end, though, the Bisons had too much offensive firepower for the Panthers to complete a final comeback.
Sophomore guard KJ Johnson and Ognacevic combined for four of six from the free throw line to help ice the game for the Bisons, stretching the score past 100 for the first time since November 5, 2019 against Rhodes College.
Despite a closer call than expected, the team still saw their hard work pay off when it mattered.
“We prepare really hard every single day in practice,” Clark said. “Birmingham came out really strong with a chip on their shoulder, and we expected that. Coach [Acuff] talked to us in the locker room, he said ‘stick to what we’re doing, and shots will fall.’
“I came into the game not really knowing what to expect,” the Westerville, Ohio-born true freshman said. “The guys told me to be myself and be comfortable; that’s what I did tonight. They were there guiding me through the game, and I just had fun tonight.”
With the win, Lipscomb kicks off their season at 1-0 ahead of a 3-game weekend in Charleston, South Carolina against College of Charleston, Loyola of Maryland and South Carolina State.
“It’ll be unique for us,” Carroll said of the upcoming multi-team event. “You’re going to have very little prep time, so you’ll kinda have to go and figure it out in the game in some sense. It’ll be a good test for our guys.”
“I think our expectation is to do what we do and be excellent at that, and let the rest take care of itself.”
The result took care of itself this evening, and the Bisons will hope the same applies throughout the budding new season.
Photo by Kathryn Farris