NASHVILLE – The Lipscomb women’s basketball team lost to the North Alabama Lions 76-68 Monday afternoon at Allen Arena.
Trailing for the majority of the game and down 17 early in the 4th quarter, the Bisons could only cut the lead to four points before the Lions finished the game off.
Three players scored 14 or more points for the home team, with sophomore guard Jalyn Holcomb’s 15-point outing leading the way. The 2020 ASUN Freshman of the Year from Murfreesboro went 6-11 from the field and shot 3-5 at the three-point line.
“I think [Holcomb] did a good job of trying to make the simple plays,” assistant coach Chris Sumski said, “not getting too far outside of herself. She did her job and she was unselfish, and that’s what we expect from Jalyn.”
Junior Blythe Pearson earned her first career double-double, making 4-11 field goals and pulling down a game-leading 11 rebounds.
Senior point guard Casey Collier had an efficient afternoon, shooting 6-8 from the floor and collecting 14 more points for Lipscomb.
“[Collier] is a warrior,” Sumski said. “She competes on both ends of the floor, and our team wouldn’t be the same without her.
A back-and-forth battle in the first quarter gave way to dominance offensively from North Alabama, who turned a three point lead at halftime into a 40-26 advantage at the halftime break.
Shooting was the name of the game for the Lions, who shot 25-49 from the field and made 11 threes. Skyler Gill totaled 21 points on 9-15 shooting for the visitors from Florence.
“Credit to them; they’re a good offensive team,” Sumski said. “It’s tough to guard them if our communication isn’t really on point. We’ve got to be more consistent and make them take tougher shots.”
The Bisons started to shoot more efficiently as well in the second half, but UNA kept them at bay. A three-point play from freshman Bella Vinson cut the lead to nine with 5:10 left in the third quarter, but seven straight points from UNA nixed the Bisons’ momentum.
Down 16 with one quarter to play, Lipscomb put up one of their best single-quarter performances all year.
Lipscomb scored 12 straight to put themselves within five at the 4:49 mark, five points of which came from senior guard Sydney Shelton. From there, the home team couldn’t put up enough points to keep pace with UNA.
Two straight offensive fouls called against the Bisons in the last 30 seconds hampered their comeback effort, while UNA were near-perfect from the free throw line to ice the game.
“The message honestly didn’t change between the third and fourth quarters–it’s just the fact that [we] started to execute it,” Sumski said. “We’ve got to start putting that together for 40 minutes.”
The Bisons have now lost seven straight games as they drop to 8-16 with a 3-9 record in ASUN Conference play. They sit fourth in the West Division, three games back of North Alabama in second place. The top two seeds in each division earn a bye week in the first round of the tournament.
North Alabama improves to 6-6 in the conference and 11-13 overall. They improve their series record against Lipscomb to 5-2.
Next up for Lipscomb is a home game against Jacksonville State, who leads the West Division and would clinch the division’s top seed if they win. Tipoff is scheduled for 7 p.m. Thursday at Allen Arena, and the game will be broadcast live on The Bison, Lipscomb’s on-campus radio station.
Photo courtesy of Lipscomb Athletics