by Mckenzi Harris | Mar 2, 2019 | Galleries
Lipscomb fans will get to see the Lipscomb men’s basketball team host every game it plays in the ASUN tournament next week. After an 87-75 win at North Alabama’s Flowers Hall on Friday night, the Bisons (23-6, 14-2 ASUN) secured the No. 1 seed and home-court advantage for the ASUN tournament thanks to a tiebreaker over Liberty. “I’m certainly pleased and proud of our team,” Lipscomb coach Casey Alexander said. “I think people picked us to be first, and we finished first.” Full story by Spencer Boehme here. « ‹ of 2 ›...
by Russell Vannozzi | Feb 26, 2019 | News Slider, Sports
Lipscomb basketball honored one of its best senior classes in program history Monday night. That’s no disrespect to Marcus Bodie, Darren Henrie, Phillip Hutcheson and Wade Tomlinson from 1990 or Mark Campbell, Andy McQueen and John Pierce from 1994 or Adnan Hodzic and Josh Slater from 2011. This year’s group stacks up against Lipscomb’s best, and it might be the best. “It’s a different era, for sure,” senior guard Garrison Mathews said. “I don’t know what it would have been like playing back then. We’ve been fortunate to come out and win some games.” Make that 77 wins over the last four seasons, to be exact. The Bisons are in the midst of their third straight 20-win season. “I think it’ll be one that people remember for a while,” Lipscomb coach Casey Alexander said of the class. “The individual and collective accomplishments of [this group] are pretty impressive.” But this column isn’t meant to spark a debate – I’ll leave that for another day. The 2019 senior class put Lipscomb basketball back on the national map, and for that, they are worth appreciating and celebrating on their own, especially given the NAIA-NCAA discrepancy. The group of five seniors includes three 1,000-point scorers (Mathews, Rob Marberry, Nathan Moran) and two that came close (Eli Pepper and Matt Rose). More importantly, these five were instrumental in Lipscomb’s rise over the last three seasons, highlighted by an ASUN title and the team’s subsequent NCAA tournament debut against North Carolina in 2018. “If you really want to gauge what those guys have done, that’s where you have to look,” Alexander said of the...
by Grant Ledgister | Feb 26, 2019 | News Slider, Sports
Monday’s game began with a celebration of Lipscomb basketball seniors Matt Rose, Eli Pepper, Rob Marberry, Garrison Mathews and Nate Moran. The celebrations didn’t end until well after the Bisons left Allen Arena with an 81-77 victory over the NJIT Highlanders. Three-pointers were the name of the game for Lipscomb (22-6, 13-2 ASUN), as Mathews and Rose started the game with a trio of three-pointers to help the Bisons jump out to an 11-5 lead over the Highlanders (20-10, 8-7 ASUN) at the first media timeout. The threes then kept raining for the Bisons. Lipscomb never surrendered the lead in the first half and took a 39-28 lead into the break. Mathews made three shots from long range in the first 20 minutes and finished with six total three-pointers. “The past few games I’ve been shooting it [terribly],” Mathews said. “It’s kind of the time of the season where everybody’s tired, everybody’s sore. It’s tough. I just needed to get a little confidence back.” Lipscomb’s defense in the first half was also stellar. The Bisons forced five turnovers and held the ASUN’s third-leading scorer in Zach Cooks to three points. But NJIT made the game close in the second half. Even though the Highlanders got into foul trouble early in the half, they were able to close the gap to just one point with 10 minutes left. Soon after, the Bisons gave up the lead for the first time, and the game became a back-and-forth affair for several minutes. There were several moments when it looked like Lipscomb would open the game back up, including a sequence with a...
by Russell Vannozzi | Feb 21, 2019 | News Slider, Sports
FORT MYERS, Fla. – The Florida Gulf Coast men’s basketball team had bad memories from the last time Lipscomb visited Alico Arena, and the Eagles got their revenge Wednesday night. FGCU knocked off the Bisons with a stunning, 67-61 victory. It was Lipscomb’s first visit to Fort Myers since its 108-96 victory in last year’s ASUN title game. The Bisons (21-6, 12-2 ASUN) have now dropped two of their last three contests, but the latest loss is the most damaging to their postseason hopes. Previously, Lipscomb’s worst loss was to Belmont (NET: 58), but FGCU entered the night ranked much lower at No. 244. Poor shooting led to Lipscomb’s worst offensive night The Bisons shot just 29 percent (20-of-68) from the field in their worst offensive showing of the season. The dismal performance came exactly one week after the team shot 36 percent and scored just 66 points in a home loss to Liberty (23-5, 12-1 ASUN) on Feb. 13. Lipscomb never fully settled into its offense and missed numerous shots around the basket. Senior forward Rob Marberry was held to eight points – well under his season average of 14.9. Eagle defense was stifling Of course, the FGCU defense had something to do with Lipscomb’s poor performance. The Eagles took advantage of light officiating in the paint and finished with 10 blocks. FGCU forward Brian Thomas was responsible for six of those blocked shots. The 6-foot-9 big man also pulled down seven rebounds, while Zach Scott had eight boards. Lipscomb shot itself in the foot by committing 11 turnovers, which led to nine FGCU points. FGCU’s Mercurius came...
by Spencer Boehme | Feb 17, 2019 | News Slider, Sports
KENNESAW, Ga. — Coming off a tough loss to Liberty earlier in the week, the Lipscomb men’s basketball team travelled to Kennesaw State on Saturday to take on a struggling ASUN bottomfeeder. The Bisons (21-5, 12-1 ASUN) were up to the task, as they beat the Owls (5-22, 2-10 ASUN) by a score of 83-67 at the KSU Convention Center. “I didn’t think we played particularly great, especially the first half,” Lipscomb coach Casey Alexander said. At halftime, the Bisons only led 33-29, with senior guard Garrison Mathews shooting 0-of-7. Lipscomb coughed up nine turnovers and fouled 12 times in the first half. “I think we were ready to play the game,” Alexander said. “And then when we didn’t get off to a good start, we didn’t respond that well. We didn’t treat it as if, ‘hey, it’s just not a good start. Stay with it. It’ll happen.’ “We got frustrated, got a little selfish, so it took us a while to get out of the funk.” But Lipscomb cleaned things up in the second half and made life difficult for the Owls. Kennesaw State had 16 second-half fouls, while Mathews put up 14 points. Senior forward Rob Marberry led the charge for the Bisons with a near-perfect day, shooting 6-of-7 from the field and 5-of-6 on free throws for 17 total points. Junior guard Michael Buckland had 10 points. Senior forward Eli Pepper nearly posted a double-double, garnering 14 rebounds in addition to eight points. He also had a team-leading five assists. The Owls were led by redshirt junior guard Tyler Hooker, who came into the game averaging...
