by Sarah McGee | Jan 25, 2015 | News Slider, Sports
It was Star Wars night Saturday in Allen Arena, but the Force was not with the Bisons. Lipscomb lost 75-66 to North Florida, with first place in the Atlantic Sun Conference on the line. This game brought in over 3,000 fans — one of the largest crowds of the season. The Bisons entered the first half strong, with forward Malcolm Smith scoring the first goal of the game. The Bisons ended the first half with a 29-19 lead. “The first 20 minutes are easily the best 20 minutes we’ve played all year on both ends of the floor,” head coach Casey Alexander said. “We made very few mistakes in the first half.” In the second half, North Florida led by 13 points, sparked by 24 from Beau Beech in the second half. Beech led all scorers with 27 points. The Bisons did not go down easily, cutting the UNF lead to single figures. Guard Josh Williams led the team with 21 points. He has double figures in 21 of his last 22 games. “Josh is playing so hard,” Alexander said. “He wants the ball. He wants to be the guy and deliver.” Also in double figures for the Bisons were Smith with 13, followed by guard J.C. Hampton with 12 and forward Talbott Denny with 11. The men’s basketball team was 0-4 in the Atlantic Sun Conference at the beginning of the 2013-2014 season, but this year the team is 4-1 — the best conference start in the history of the program. “Nobody’s happy about the result by any stretch, but this loss is better than several of the wins we’ve...
by Gemikal Prude | Jan 22, 2015 | Sports
Lipscomb remained undefeated and tied for first place in the Atlantic Sun Conference with an 80-77 double-overtime win over Jacksonville Thursday night. Lipscomb was missing two of its usual starters, Nathan Moran and Brett Wishon, due to concussions. Head coach Casey Alexander recognized that the adjustments to the line-up were a challenge. “Facing a zone for 40 minutes without your two best shooters is definitely a challenge,” Alexander said. “But we found a way to get it done.” Allen Arena had quite the buzz, from both the increased number of fans and with the participation of the Hunters Lane High School band. The Dolphins went off with an onslaught of offense, due to the high amount of turnovers from the Bisons early in the first half. The Bisons finished the first half trailing 35-21. The Dolphins knocked down five three-pointers toward the end of the half and shot nearly 50% from the field. Lipscomb, on the other hand, hit only three three-pointers and shot a little over 30%. The beginning of the second half was a completely different story, with the Bisons going on a 11-3 run in the first five minutes, cutting the Jacksonville lead to five. As six minutes ran off the clock, both sides were scoring back and forth, and with under four minutes left, the Dolphins led 54-53. With 1:18 remaining in regulation, Lipscomb freshman guard Aaron Korn tied the game at 58 with a three-pointer. With 26 seconds left, junior Talbott Denny took a charge. J.C. Hampton took the last shot of the game, which resulted in a near make that sent the game into the first overtime. “I thought our energy was...
by Brianne Welch | Jan 5, 2015 | Sports
The Lady Bisons broke their three game losing streak while the men’s team bounced back with a win after losing to Missouri. Against Trevecca, the game was a tale of two halves. The Lady Bisons were down 39-34 at half time before coming out with a strong effort in the second half. At just over 16 minutes, Lipscomb took a 47-41 lead and kept it the rest of the game. “We came out flat in the first half. It’s the first day back to classes, and we just weren’t ready to play in the first half,” head coach Greg Brown said. “I told them to forget the first half, make the adjustments and go, and I thought they played with a lot more intensity in the second half.” The Lady Bisons had a strong offensive game in the second half that was led by senior Danay Fothergill. Fothergill had 26 points on the game and made shots from the paint as well as the three point line. Brown said that even though he’s happy with the win, his team needs to come out strong for all 40 minutes of conference games, not just the second half. “We told them to treat this game like it’s the first game of conference,” Brown said. “Hopefully it teaches them that that’s a great 20 minutes, but in the conference, these next games, you can’t afford to do that.” The Lady Bisons shot their best field goal percentage of the season against Trevecca. At the end of the game, the team had shot 54.1 percent from the field. Lipscomb came away with the 95-71 win improving their...
by Logan Butts | Nov 24, 2014 | News Slider, Sports
For the second time in only a week the Lipscomb Bisons have fallen to their Battle of the Boulevard rival Belmont Bruins, this time by a score of 82-77. The 136th edition of the ‘Battle’ had a familiar feeling as the Bruins came out with a victory for the seventh iteration in a row, albeit by a much closer margin than this season’s first matchup. “I’m proud of our players,” Lipscomb head coach Casey Alexander said.” “[They showed] a lot of persistence, and real great effort to battle back like that.” Seniors Malcolm and Martin Smith kept the Bisons in the game in the final moments. Both finished with 21 points on the night. Malcolm Smith tied Talbott Denny for a team leading 6 rebounds and notched 3 assists as well. “They’re [Martin and Malcolm Smith] seniors and they’re both thousand-point scorers.” Alexander said, “That’s what they’ve proven they can do. They have to keep doing it.” Clutch free throws from junior Craig Bradshaw down the stretch helped secure the victory for the Bruins. Bradshaw scored 29 points in the game, a new career high, and went 5-7 from downtown. He also collected 5 rebounds and 4 assists. “He was their best player down the stretch last year,” Alexander said about Bradshaw, “He’s had some unbelievable games, and he killed us when he had to kill us.” A back-breaking three-pointer from junior Jeff Laidig started the Bruins on a devastating 14-0 run in the waning moments of the first half. Laidig’s basket, which came directly after Lipscomb’s Malcolm Smith had tied the game at 27, crippled any momentum the...
by Logan Butts | Nov 17, 2014 | News Slider, Sports
In the 135th iteration of the Battle of the Boulevard, the Bisons lost to their same-street rival Belmont for the sixth consecutive time 87-62. Sophomore Josh Williams was one of the few bright spots for the Bisons. He scored 13 points and grabbed four rebounds. The Bruins started off the game scorching with a pair of quick baskets from Junior Craig Bradshaw and Senior Reece Chamberlain in front of the raucous Lipscomb crowd. The baskets helped spark a 19-5 to begin the game for Belmont. By the halfway point of the first half, the Bisons cut the lead down to single digits, 24-16 thanks to the trio of senior Martin Smith, sophomore J.C. Hampton and Williams. In what was a game of streaks, the Bruins responded with another hot streak of their own. Belmont held a commanding 40-26 lead with less than three minutes left to play before halftime. “When we go on a run, it just takes one simple thing like a missed rotation or a breakdown just to stop the run,” Smith said, “We just got to get the little things right.” Smith scored surpassed 1,000 points for his career on the night, joining his brother Malcolm who surpassed the milestone in the 2014 Atlantic Sun Tournament. “It feels pretty good, wish we could’ve got the win though.” Smith said. Had it not been for a pair of three point plays, one traditional and one the hard way, from Williams and another three from freshman Nate Moran in the final moments of the half, the halftime deficit may have been insurmountable. The Bisons, however, only trailed by...
