The Lipscomb Bisons played conference rival North Alabama at Allen Arena on Saturday, looking to continue their win streak after last week’s breakout performance against Kennesaw State.
However, things didn’t turn out the way Lipscomb had hoped. The Bisons fell to the Lions 82-69 despite Lipscomb leading by nine in the second half. This gave North Alabama its first road win of the year as they were 0-9 previously before coming into the game.
The first half was very competitive as both teams went blow for blow. North Alabama was down 27-34 with two minutes left in the half but would go on a 5-0 run capped off by a dunk to end the first half down only two points.
Both teams were anxious to get any sort of momentum going in the second half. However, neither team would budge.
After a back and forth start to the second half, Lipscomb started to gain a little momentum as they started make some free throws to jump out to a nine-point lead making it 55-46 midway through the second half.
Then it was North Alabama’s turn to gain ground, after hitting a three just as the shot clock expired with a little over 10 minutes to go in the game.
Lipscomb Coach Lennie Acuff saw this as a key turning point for North Alabama.
“We’re up nine with ten minutes, it looked there was gonna [sic] be a shot clock violation, and they make a three as the shot clock goes off, it just opened up the flood gates.” Acuff said.
North Alabama would then go on a 33-11 run to close out the game turning a nine-point deficit into a 13-point lead for the Lions.
Despite the loss, Lipscomb’s sophomore guard Greg Jones had a great game shooting. He went 7-10 from the floor and scored 21 points. Sophomore center Ahsan Asadullah also had a good game in the paint with 17 points, five rebounds, and six assists.
Coach Acuff stated this his team needs to forget about this game and continue to work hard to improve.
“You’ve got to have a short-term memory and get back after it on Monday,” said Acuff. “We’ll do that. It’s just a matter of we’ve hit a tough spot, and we just got to have enough about us to go back to work.”
This loss still has Lipscomb at third place in the ASUN with a record of 2-2 conference games. The Bison’s next matchup will be on the road against NJIT next Thursday.
Gallery by Riley Hoag.