The fourth-seeded Lady Bisons open conference tournament play Thursday afternoon in Kennesaw, Georgia against the fifth-seeded Stetson Hatters.
In head coach Lauren Sumski’s first season, Lipscomb is coming off of one of their best seasons in recent memory, going undefeated at home for the first time in the program’s Division-I era.
The Bisons enter the tournament with their highest seeding since the 2017-2018 campaign when they fell in the semifinals to the FGCU Eagles.
A huge reason for the Bisons’ success is senior ASUN second-team senior forward Taylor Clark, who is averaging 12.3 points and 4.5 rebounds per game for Lipscomb. Clark has been a leader on and off the court, and her versatility makes her an integral part of everything the Bisons do.
Joining Clark as an ASUN honoree is freshman Jordan Peete, who has already made a huge impact with Lipscomb in her first season, averaging 9.3 points per game.
For Lipscomb to advance, they will need to rely on Clark and Peete, as well as sophomore stalwarts Casey Collier and Jalyn Holcomb.
Thursday afternoon Lipscomb will “host” the Stetson Lady Hatters in the one-site tournament location at Kennesaw State University. This new format was introduced to minimize travel in order to prevent the spread of COVID-19 but will allow teams to have more consistency in between matchups.
The Lady Bisons are going to have quite a challenge hoping to clinch the automatic NCAA tournament bid. While Lipscomb swept Stetson in the regular season, the Hatters will be looking to bounce back in this third matchup of the season and keep their perfect record against the Bisons in post-season play.
But of course, the story of ASUN women’s basketball is always the FGCU Eagles, who are looking to go undefeated while clinching their fifth consecutive ASUN tournament title. The Eagles, who are currently ranked in the AP Top 25, are led by ASUN Player of the Year Kierstan Bell, who has averaged 24.8 points and 10.7 rebounds per game on the season.
If Lipscomb and FGCU were to both advance, the Bisons would be looking for their first-ever win against the Eagles.
Lipscomb’s quarterfinal matchup against the Hatters will begin at 1 PM CT.
All games will be streamed on ESPN+.