The Lipscomb Lady Bisons fell to the Mercer Bears Saturday night 72-79, but topped the Atlantic Sun season record for individual player points.
With the Lady Bisons playing with a limited roster for the night, redshirt sophomore Danay Fothergill topped her career high and set the new A-Sun season record at 34 for most points scored in a game.
Four of the Lady Bisons saw over 37 minutes of play: Fothergill, redshirt sophomore Ashley Southern, junior Sara Bliss, and sophomore Kelli Smith.
“Some of us had to play all 40 minutes, and that’s fine, but we just had to do what we had to do to get the win,” Fothergill said.
The first half of the game saw six lead-changes and four turnovers per team. Although Mercer came out more aggressive in the beginning with 7 personal fouls, the teams were neck-in-neck at the half with the score at 37-38 Mercer.
At the close of the second half, the Lady Bisons were within 3 points of the Bears with 9 seconds to go in the game. Strategic fouling sent Fothergill out of the game with her fifth foul and the Bears secured their win as junior Precious Bridges sunk both her free throws.
Southern collected her eleventh double-double and was joined by Fothergill and Smith with points in the double digits.
Mercer junior Teanna Robinson had six shot-blocks on the night and gave Lipscomb freshman Faith LeGate a challenging night at the post.
LeGate, a starter for the Lady Bisons against Mercer, pulled down eleven rebounds against the 6’5″‘ build of Robinson.
LeGate says she came into the game a little nervous, but knew she had to calm down in order to play at her best.
“At first, I actually felt really nervous, but as the game went on, I kept telling myself to relax because I don’t play well when I’m not relaxed and my team needed me to [play well],” LeGate said.
The loss brings the team to a 0-4 A-Sun record, with three of the team’s four losses being within a seven-point range of their opponents.
Fothergill says that making small-but-necessary adjustments will help the team be successful in the future.
“What do we have to do to get over that little hump? I mean, it’s the little things like getting deflections and not letting them get offensive rebounds. It’s connecting all of those little things into one,” Fothergill said.
Photo credit: Erin Turner