ASUN announces addition of three teams and FCS football

ASUN announces addition of three teams and FCS football

Friday morning the ASUN conference announced the arrival of three new teams, Eastern Kentucky, Central Arkansas, and Jacksonville State, as well as the addition of NCAA FCS football to the sports offered by the conference.  All three teams will join the conference in the 2021-2022 school year and will bring the total enrollment to 12 teams in the ASUN. “When a conference embarks on a mission to strengthen itself through expansion, it has to present a case for why a membership with one conference would be more beneficial to the institution than membership in its current conference,” ASUN Commissioner Ted Gumbart said in a release from the conference. “The ASUN spent two years examining and defining its advantages and then presenting interested candidates with the option to join. Every institution will select the best option for conference affiliation from the available options. Each institution owes it to the student body, the athletic department and the university community as a whole to do what is best for the university. The ASUN works extremely hard to build options. To know that these three institutions have evaluated their options, and knowing each had multiple choices for conference affiliation and that they chose the ASUN is a great achievement. The ASUN Presidents’ Council set this process in place years ago when the Council members challenged the conference to be a great destination, and that would attract new member interest. The plan has worked and we are thankful for the visionary leadership of our Council to prioritize the student-athlete experience and the institutional value of being a member of the ASUN.” Jacksonville State is...

Fothergill in a leadership position for the Lady Bisons

Since making her debut on Dec. 14,  redshirt sophomore Danay Fothergill has set the A-Sun record for most points in a game and brought home the Atlantic Sun Player of the Week award once. Fothergill received the Atlantic Sun Player of the Week award Jan. 20. and posted her career high of 34 points against Mercer Jan. 11. Fothergill has averaged 31 points in the last three games. “Knowing I need to attack the basket, knowing I need to get to the free-throw line and hitting open shots is how I scored those points and got in the rhythm,” Fothergill said. Fothergill transferred from Western Kentucky for the spring semester last year. By NCAA rule, she had to sit out one year of game play. She came out ready in her first game back scoring 19 against Jacksonville State. Even though she was practicing, Fothergill says she learned the most from watching the games on the bench. “I was watching the games, and I was learning from them so I would change my behaviors in practice to how game situations were handled,” Fothergill said. “It’s kind of like I got to see each play and mentally change the outcome.” Fothergill has stepped into many roles for the Lady Bisons recently including point guard. Fothergill sees her role as being a leader wherever Coach Brown needs her. “I’m trying to not only be a scoring leader but a vocal leader too, and trying to make my teammates better everyday is what I’m really trying to focus on,” Fothergill said. The Lady Bisons have only won three games and are still looking...

Lady Bisons surge, yet fall short of comeback in loss to Murray State

It almost felt like two separate games for the Lady Bisons basketball team in their 86-79 loss at home to the Murray State Racers on Saturday. In the first half, sloppy play, fouls and turnovers were the story. Murray State had 13 fouls and 6 turnovers, while the Lady Bisons had 11 fouls and 7 turnovers in the first twenty minutes of action. In the second half, the Lady Bisons surged back from being down by 16 points at one point, and with the help of a Chandler Cooper three-point shot, Lipscomb tied the game at 56. However, the Racers pulled away in the closing minutes with the aid of free throws and missed Lipscomb shots to hold on for the victory. Head coach Greg Brown said that in the second half, the team did make improvements. “We did a better job of getting the ball inside, [getting] drives and cuts right there,” Brown said. “I thought we did a better job of executing that part of the game.” Junior Sara Bliss led the Lady Bisons in scoring with 22, 12 of those points from the arc. Redshirt sophomore Ashley Southern picked up a double-double for the game. She scored 20 points and led the team in rebounds with 15. “My teammates were just looking for me inside in the second half, sending me the ball. [It] helped a lot,” Southern said. “We played really well today. I thought, at the very end, we were playing well, but we should have been doing it the whole game.” Southern also said that the team was playing harder in the last...

Two Bison players not present at practice before A-Sun tourney; status unknown

Bison basketball players Damarius Smith and Marvin Williams were not present at Monday’s practice just two days before the opening round of the Atlantic Sun tournament. Smith, a redshirt freshman, and Williams, also a freshman, did not participate in Monday’s practice and are not expected to join the team in Macon, Ga., for the Atlantic Sun tournament. A source close to the team says “it will be a very interesting 24 hours for the Lipscomb basketball team.” Lipscomb head coach Scott Sanderson said that it was mainly a “disciplinary issue” with Smith. Sanderson did not elaborate on Williams’ status but said he has missed the last four games because he has been “banged up” with a knee injury. This is not the first time Smith has been held out of playing. Earlier this season against Belmont, Smith dressed and warmed up with the team but did not enter the game. “It was just a discipline issue,” Sanderson said of Smith’s status in the Belmont game. “We handled it internally, and we moved forward.” “We’re just trying to learn and do what’s right,” he said. “Sometimes being young is difficult, and we are just trying to learn from day to day and do the right thing.” Smith averaged 5.2 points per game this season. The most notable points came when he hit the game-winning three in overtime versus Stetson on Jan. 16. Williams had an up-and-down year dealing with injuries and maturing as a player, but just over two weeks ago the Memphis, native scored a season-high 16 points in a 99-91 win over Stetson on Feb. 11. Smith and...