Lady Bisons best visiting Bucs, earn place in A-Sun tourney

The Lady Bisons (6-22) put together one of their most complete efforts of the season in a 76-74 victory over the East Tennessee State Bucs (9-19) on Thursday night at Allen Arena. A go-ahead 3-pointer from junior guard Sara Bliss 13.8 seconds left gave Lipscomb a 74-72 lead, which they did not relinquish. The game started off on a good note for Lipscomb. Bliss secured the opening tip and euro-stepped her way to a 3-point play. She ended up with 14 points on the night including three 3’s. “I knew we were down, and I heard the bench yelling that the shot clock was going down, it was at five or six seconds,” Bliss said. “So, Chandler kicked it to me, and my coaches always tell me to shoot, so I shot.” “I’ll be as honest as I can be,” said Lady Bisons head coach Greg Brown, “We do that [play] every day. That’s another kick-out 3 for us. That’s the second time she’s done that. The best thing about it, it wasn’t run for her. We had three options that led to a great reversal pass to a wide open player.” Lipscomb shot well from behind the arc the entire night. The team finished 10-for-20 from deep in the game. Redshirt freshman guard Chandler Cooper and redshirt sophomore guard Danay Fothergill, along with Bliss, led the Lady Bisons with three long range baskets each. Cooper and Fothergill scored 16 and 19 points respectively in the contest. Redshirt sophomore forward Ashley Southern came up big for Lipscomb once again. Southern racked up 27 points, seven rebounds, three assists and a...

Career day for Southern leads Lady Bisons past North Florida

Originally posted at LipscombSports.com  In a close game that saw multiple lead changes throughout, the Lipscomb women’s basketball came out on top Saturday afternoon against Atlantic Sun Conference foe North Florida 84-76 in Allen Arena. The victory gave Lipscomb their first back-to-back victories since wins over North Florida and Jacksonville in the 2011-12 season. The Lady Bisons (5-19, 2-11 A-Sun), who saw four out of five starters reach double digits in scoring, were led by Ashley Southern’s career high 29 points off of 12-of-17 shooting from the field. Southern also notched 12 rebounds and four assists in a prolific game for the sophomore. The Ospreys (5-17, 1-11 A-Sun) came out strong, starting off the game on a 14-3 run. Junior Destinee Smith, the Ospreys’ leading scorer, scored 11 points in the first five minutes of the game. North Florida held the lead for most of the first half, with the Lady Bisons pulling ahead for the first time with less than two minutes to go until halftime. After trading baskets for the final minutes of the first half, North Florida went into the locker room with a 43-42 lead. “Smith came out ready to go, and then we started doing what we were supposed to do in the first place,” said Lipscomb head coach Greg Brown, “We made a couple of adjustments, just making sure we were there with her coming off the screens. We were a little quicker getting to her. And then law of averages sometimes kicks in. They came out hitting everything, but we were able to slow them down.” Southern scored the first bucket of...

Lady Bisons earn first conference win of season against Jacksonville

Three point shots were falling all over the court for the Lady Bisons as the team secured its first conference win of the season against Jacksonville University. Sophomore guard Kelli Smith had a career high 18 points for Lipscomb in the 94-79 win. She was four for six from the 3-point line and five for seven from the field. Her previous career high was also against Jacksonville. Thursday’s win was also the first home win of the season for Lipscomb. Before tonight, their last win was on Dec. 21 against Gardner-Webb. Chandler Cooper led the Lady Bisons with 22 points. She scored 12 points in the first eight minutes, including a trio of 3-pointers. Lipscomb made nine 3-pointers in the first half, which allowed them to lead the Dolphins 46-37 at the half. The Lady Bisons have struggled to put together two complete halves this season, but that wasn’t the case tonight. Jacksonville made 50 of their points in the paint and they only took four 3-point shots the whole night. The Dolphins made three quick baskets driving right through Lipscomb’s defense to tie the game at 61 with 11:11 left in the game. Smith countered Jacksonville’s run with a 3-pointer that would start the Lady Bisons on a 15-2 run to build the lead again. Lipscomb had stretched the lead to 12 with 3:57 to go and, with four Jacksonville players in foul trouble, the game was all but over. “I feel great. It’s a huge relief,” Smith said. “Its one of those things where we’ve been close a lot, and it’s just time for it to happen. Now, we can take this...

Lady Bisons can’t overcome offensive woes against Stetson

Despite a back and forth first half, the Lipscomb Lady Bisons extended their losing streak to 10 games in a 82-47 loss to the Stetson Hatters at Allen Arena. The win for the Hatters was their eighth in a row. The Hatters came out firing on all cylinders after halftime, starting off the second half with a 13-0 run to extend their 11 point lead to 24. The Lady Bisons struggled to find their shooting touch throughout the game as Stetson’s defense was strong from the get-go. The Lady Bisons shot 15-66 from the floor on the game. Lispcomb especially had trouble behind the arch, finishing the game 6-33 from the 3-point line. The Lady Bisons usual sharpshooters all had trouble finding the basket. Danay Fothergill, Chandler Cooper and Sara Bliss combined to shoot just 3-24 from outside. One silver lining for the Lady Bisons was the play of sophomore Ashley Southern. Southern almost notched a double-double in the first half with nine points and 11 rebounds. She finished off the achievement in the second half, ending the game with 14 points (on 6-14 shooting) with 16 rebounds. Southern has now recorded a double-double in seven straight games. Southern is also closing in on the Atlantic Sun Conference record for most double-doubles in a season. She has 16 double-doubles on the season, just five away from the conference record of 21. “I mean, that’s pretty exciting, but I’d much rather us be number one in the conference,” Southern said. With the outside shot lacking, the Lady Bisons ran the offense through Southern for most of the game. Even though...

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...