by Erika Plunkett | Dec 18, 2020 | News Slider, Sports
The Lipscomb womens basketball team won their third home game of the week 82-60 Friday afternoon against the Converse College after taking advantage of the Valkyries turnovers improving their record to 3-1. The Lady Bisons got off to another fast start against the Valkryies leading 7-0, but in what has been a season of runs for Lipscomb, the Bisons quickly lost their lead as Converse went on a 10-2 run aided by Lipscomb turnovers. Lipscomb was able to recover the lead behind senior forward Taylor Clark’s second three of the first quarter, and shots from junior guard Sydney Shelton and freshman guard Jordan Peete padded the lead for the Lady Bisons going into the second quarter. Missed shots and turnovers allowed the Valkryies to stay close, but Lipscomb would hold on to the lead for the remainder of the first half, leading at the break by eight points off of 10 second quarter turnovers from Converse. Coming back from the half, Lipscomb began to take advantage in transition offense, holding the height advantage over the guard heavy Converse roster. Points in the paint from sophomore center Dorie Harrison and a shot from downtown by Clark finally provided some separation for the Lady Bisons, who extended their lead to 15 points before the media break. The Valkyries held Lipscomb without a field goal for three minutes, but continued turnovers and fouls kept the Lady Bisons ahead by 15 at the end of the third quarter. Lipscomb continued to take advantage of Converse turnovers finishing the day with 33 points off of 28 turnovers. Starting the fourth quarter, Lipscomb went on...
by Erika Plunkett | Dec 2, 2019 | News Slider, Sports
Coming off two straight losses during the ASUN-MAAC challenge last weekend, Lipscomb was looking to bounce back at home against the Eastern Illinois Panthers Sunday afternoon. Without starting sophomore center Dorie Harrison and starting junior guard Sydney Shelton, the Bisons had quite a challenge.giving their leading scorer, freshman guard Jalyn Holcomb, a supporting cast. Much of the first half was controlled by the Panthers’ disruptive offense in the paint, behind 6’1” sophomore center Abby Wahl’s 12 first-half points. For the Bisons, junior forward Taylor Clark and senior forward Emily Kmec both got into early foul trouble, which aided in EIU’s success down low. “We’ve faced adversity all season, so it’s nothing new,” Lipscomb head coach Lauren Sumski said. “But we need to be smarter. We need to execute better. We can’t turn the ball over 22 times.” The Bisons ended the first half and began the first half on a 24-13 run to cut the Panthers lead to 4, but fouls and turnovers ended the Bisons’ hopes of completing the comeback The Panthers capitalized by scoring 22 points on Lipscomb’s 22 turnovers. Combined the two teams finished with 49 fouls, including 30 in the second half. After her 17 second-half points, sophomore guard Jordyn Hughes finished the day as the leading scorer for Eastern Illinois, and for the Bisons, Holcomb scored 18 points. “We left young ladies open in transition and they knocked down shots,” Sumski said. For this squad, their focus is on using these non-conference games to grow before conference play begins in January. “We just need to lock in and focus and getting better at finishing possessions,...
by Erika Plunkett | Nov 20, 2019 | BREAKING NEWS, News Slider, Sports
Sparked by Lady Bisons’ turnovers, the visiting Murray State Racers staged a late-game comeback to walk away with a 67-57 victory in a game that has Lipscomb coach Lauren Sumski perplexed. After holding the edge in the turnover battle in the first half, Lipscomb allowed 15 second-half turnovers while Murray State only allowed three. “We are better than that,” Sumski said after the Tuesday loss. “We are better than giving up 19 and 25 points in the third and fourth quarter.” Despite the fact that the Lady Bisons were unable to hit a three-point shot until late in the second quarter, it was Lipscomb that jumped out to an eight-point early in the game. Going into the halftime break, Sumski and her team still held a six-point lead, led by sophomore guard Jane Deason’s seven points and sophomore center Dorie Harrison’s six points. Entering the second half, the Lady Bisons extended their lead to 10 before four consecutive turnovers cut the lead to three. “They made a lot of the shots that we gave them from poor communication and poor transition,” Sumski said. The Racers took advantage of these missed opportunities from the Bisons and went on 25-9 run to close out the game behind sophomore guard Macey Turley’s 20 points and freshman forward Macie Gibson’s 19 points. “We are better than that defensively,” Sumski said. “But tonight I felt like they beat us to 50-50 balls, and they turned it on when it mattered. We didn’t respond in the second half when they went on their run.” The Lady Bisons continue to play this weekend in the...
by Mckenzi Harris | Nov 16, 2019 | News Slider, Sports
Carleigh Short hit a second-chance three with 12.8 seconds on the clock to tie the home-opener and clear the way for a home-debut victory for new women’s basketball coach Lauren Sumski. “She’s [Carleigh] been a big shot maker her entire career,” said Sumski, after the 71-69 victory over Northern Kentucky. “We knew we wanted to get her a look, this was a play we put in earlier that they executed really well so I was really excited for her to knock down that shot.” After Short’s game-tying three, redshirt-sophomore Dorie Harrison sunk a pair of free throws to win the game “We completely trusted Dorie,” said Carleigh Short. “We knew she was gonna hit both of them, so in our minds, we were just saying, ‘nothing long’ because we knew they couldn’t get a layup they had to throw it long and so Dorie stepped up big and got the win for us.” Northern Kentucky led for much of the first quarter, but Lipscomb responded with a second-quarter rally to take the lead into halftime. But in the third and fourth quarters the lead was back and forth changing 11 times during the game, and neither team could get separation until the final whistle. This was a delayed home-opener, because the previously scheduled game opener against Cincinnati Christian was canceled due to CCU closing its doors. “We are really excited to have a home opener,” said Sumski, whose team had an 0-1 record going into the home-opener. “I’m excited for our kids to have the opportunity to play in front of their family and friends and have the opportunity...
by Erika Plunkett | Nov 3, 2019 | News Slider, Sports
Arriving on the heels of one of the worst seasons in program history, new women’s basketball head coach Lauren Sumski is embracing the doubters as the motivation for her team. “We were excited,” Sumski said.“I was fired up when they [the ASUN preseason poll] picked us ninth.” This is just the response you would expect if you have spent any time with the young head coach. Her excitement, enthusiasm and can-do attitude are a breath of fresh air for a team that many times last season seemed defeated before they even took the court. “Usually, all of those preseason rankings are just based off of the former season, and that’s exactly where we finished,” Sumski said. “We don’t make any qualms about it; we never have.” But Sumski knows something that the poll voters do not: this is an entirely new team. “We have a lot of returners who I think have stepped up and improved in different ways,” she said. “We have some transfers that I think are going to add to us tremendously. And I think we have some young kids who are really going to be able to step up and help us really early as well.” One of those returners is junior guard Taylor Clark, who was voted as ASUN preseason player of the year. Clark, who missed parts of last season with injuries, was Lipscomb’s leading scorer last season and the only player who averaged double-digit points. Adding to the Lady Bisons’ roster is former Kentucky guard and redshirt sophomore transfer Dorie Harrison, who played all 32 games for the Wildcats and averaged 6.7...
