by Russell Vannozzi | Mar 23, 2019 | News Slider, Sports
GREENSBORO, N.C – Road games simply don’t bother the Lipscomb men’s basketball team. In front of a mostly-hostile Greensboro Coliseum crowd, the Bisons delivered a dominant performance in an 86-69 blowout of UNCG Saturday in the NIT. The Bisons will play the winner of NC State-Harvard on Wednesday, March 27 in the tournament quarterfinals. Lipscomb continued to add to its NCAA Division I-era road win record with its 13th of the season. The Bisons had 10 road wins last season, but they eclipsed that mark with an 87-75 victory over North Alabama on March 1. “I don’t know what it is,” Lipscomb senior Garrison Mathews said of playing on the road. “It’s a good feeling that we can come [play] in front of the great crowd that [UNCG] had and play well.” Mathews and fellow senior Rob Marberry were at their best against the Spartans. Marberry led the way with 24 points on 12-of-13 shooting, while Mathews produced a double-double with 23 points and 11 rebounds. The Spartans jumped out to an early lead behind the hot hands of senior Francis Alonso and junior Isaiah Miller. But Lipscomb made 10 of its final 11 shots in the first half to take a 43-35 advantage into the break. After Mathews made a three with 1:38 remaining in the first, the Bisons never relinquished their lead. Much of that run was thanks to crisp passing – including a long runner from Marberry to Nathan Moran to end the half with a layup and a 10-2 run. Lipscomb finished with 20 assists to UNCG’s seven. “Any time that we can get a bunch...
by Russell Vannozzi | Mar 20, 2019 | News Slider, Sports
DAVIDSON, N.C. – Any thought that the Lipscomb men’s basketball team wouldn’t be interested in the NIT was dispelled Tuesday night at John M. Belk Arena. Despite trailing for 27 of the 40 minutes, Lipscomb pulled off a late comeback for an 89-81 victory over Davidson in the first round of the NIT. The Bisons will travel to UNCG for the second round at a to-be-determined date and time. “We have a lot of old, experienced guys, and it hasn’t shown necessarily in the previous games,” Lipscomb junior guard Michael Buckland said. “You could tell that a lot of us didn’t want that game to not finish in our favor. So yeah, just a lot of resolve from our guys – a lot of experience showed tonight.” Senior forward Eli Pepper hit a dagger three in the corner with 34 seconds left, but it was Buckland who stole the show in the final minutes. Buckland, a native of nearby High Point, North Carolina, swished a three with 5:12 remaining to give Lipscomb a 74-71 lead, which the Bisons never relinquished. He followed that with eight more points down the stretch to finish with a team-high 19 points, including four makes from long range. “[Buckland] shot it great and made timely baskets,” Lipscomb coach Casey Alexander said. “He doesn’t get any notoriety for what he does defensively. But [Davidson’s] two guards are as good as any we’ve played all season long. And he guarded those guys all night.” Davidson recruited Buckland during his time at Wesleyan Christian Academy, but the Wildcats never extended an offer. In front of plenty of family...
by Russell Vannozzi | Mar 18, 2019 | News Slider, Sports
Garrison Mathews shot 35 percent from three-point land his freshman and sophomore seasons at Lipscomb. That clip is nothing to sneeze at, but Mathews wanted to do better. And it just so happened that a local trainer could help him get there. “I didn’t want to be a mid-30 percent shooter, or even a 30 percent shooter at all,” Mathews said. “I wanted to be in the 40s – that was my goal for this year. I put a ton of work in, and I credit Jordan Romine for helping me with that.” Flash forward to this season, and Mathews is averaging 20.1 points per game and shooting 41 percent from three and 85 percent from the free-throw line. He also became Lipscomb’s all-time leading scorer in January and was named ASUN Player of the Year earlier this month. Part of that success is thanks to spending the last two summers working with Romine, a relative unknown in the basketball training world. Romine played at Centennial High School and was later a student manager for the Middle Tennessee women’s basketball team. He has since privately trained a few Blue Raiders, but Mathews is his poster child. “I saw he had potential and thought I could help him if I could get my hands on him,” Romine said. The idea was sparked when Romine heard the Lipscomb-Tennessee basketball game on the radio in December 2016. Mathews, the younger brother of Romine’s friend and former Franklin High School rival Braden Mathews, dropped 28 points and made five threes in a 92-77 loss to the Volunteers that day. “I was like, ‘that’s...
by Russell Vannozzi | Mar 16, 2019 | News Slider, Sports
The Lipscomb men’s basketball team likely missed its chance to advance to the NCAA tournament when it dropped last Sunday’s ASUN title game to Liberty, 74-68. However, Lipscomb has remained in the at-large bid conversation for much of the past week. That’s partially thanks to the team’s “Bisons vs. the Bubble” campaign on Twitter, which compared Lipscomb to other bubble teams like Indiana, Texas, St. John’s, Alabama, TCU, Ohio State and Arizona State. Media personalities including Dick Vitale, Jeff Goodman, Clark Kellogg and Scott Van Pelt have all mentioned Lipscomb as a possible at-large team since Sunday’s ASUN title loss. But it appears the Bisons are on the outside looking in as the Power 5 conferences complete their tournaments this weekend. Lipscomb is expected to be in the NIT field when it’s announced on Sunday at 7:30 p.m. CT on ESPNU. ESPN bracketologist Joe Lunardi has Lipscomb ranked as the sixth team left of the bracket as of Saturday morning. Belmont is listed as the first team out. CBS analyst Jerry Palm sees the Bisons as a bubble team and the Bruins as the third team left out. SB Nation has Belmont as its last team in and Lipscomb among the next four out. Bleacher Report lists Belmont as its second-to-last team in and the Bisons as its third team out. Bisons likely traveling for NIT Multiple sources told Lumination that Lipscomb did not apply to host NIT first or second round games. The school is on spring break this week, and there is a possible venue conflict in Allen Arena for the second round date. That means the Bisons will...
by Russell Vannozzi | Mar 11, 2019 | News Slider, Sports
Lipscomb’s basketball season wasn’t supposed to turn out like this. Not after rolling through the ASUN and taking the league’s No. 1 seed. Not with five seniors, three of which are 1,000-point scorers. Not with the conference Player of the Year on its roster. Not with road victories at TCU, SMU and Liberty. No, no, no. Absolutely not. 2019 was supposed to be Lipscomb’s year. The Bisons were to be everyone’s NCAA tournament darling – the team that was built to potentially ruin brackets. Every major bracketologist had Lipscomb in the field of 68. But in sports, and especially in March, there are no guarantees. And that’s exactly why we watch with such anticipation, even though there’s always a chance for heartbreak. And there was plenty of heartbreak to go around Sunday in Allen Arena, where Lipscomb dropped a 74-68 loss to Liberty in the ASUN championship. The Flames get to go dancing, the Bisons get to go to the NIT. “It’s disappointing,” Lipscomb coach Casey Alexander said. “One of the hats you wear when you’re the head coach…you’re responsible for making a lot of people happy. Personally, I hate that we couldn’t deliver the final result that would have kind of put the whole thing over the top.” The Flames earned it. They made shots when it mattered most, including Scottie James’ go-ahead layup with 56 seconds left and a dagger three-pointer from Georgie Pacheco-Ortiz 40 seconds later. Meanwhile, Lipscomb’s stars faded at the end. Mathews committed the turnover that led to James’ layup and later missed a three-pointer with four ticks remaining. Rob Marberry missed a layup...
