Thursday, November 10, 2011

NASHVILLE, Tenn. – After a warmup exhibition tilt against Harding last Saturday, the Lipscomb women’s basketball team gets the 2011-12 season underway on Friday night hosting non-conference foe Air Force at 5 p.m. at Allen Arena.  As part of Veteran’s Day, fans are encouraged to wear red in honor of those who have served in the Armed Forces.

The Lady Bisons and Falcons met to open the 2010-11 season in Colorado Springs, Colo., with Air Force taking the first-ever meeting between the two schools 64-50.  Both teams dropped close exhibition contests with Lipscomb falling 51-45 to Harding and Air Force losing 66-65 to the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs.

“I’m looking forward to the opener with Air Force tomorrow night,” said Lipscomb head coach Frank Bennett. “They bring obviously a very disciplined and well conditioned team since they do military stuff on top of the basketball stuff. “

The Lady Bisons look to preseason All-Atlantic Sun selection Anna Bowers to lead the way after averaging 13.2 points-per-contest a year ago.  Bowers led all scorers last year against the Falcons with a 12-point night in the loss to the Cadets.

The opponent: Air Force – The Falcons return four starters from last season’s squad that finished 9-22 under then first-year head coach Andrea Williams.  Preseason All-Mountain West selection Dymond James is the top performer led Air Force last season averaging 11.5 points and 6.8 rebounds per contest.  Junior guard Alicia Leipprandt finished just behind James offensively for the Falcons averaging 9.0 points-per-game a year ago.

“They have a lot of experience back and play very aggressive,” said Bennett.  “They’ll probably press the whole game unless you can burn them some and get them out of it.  They play an aggressive man-to-man (defense) and they are patient offensively.  So it will be a defensive challenge for us.”

Tickets:  Tickets for Friday night’s doubleheader that features the men’s home opener against Fort Valley State at 7:15 p.m. are on sale at the Lipscomb ticket office at Allen Arena or online at http://www.LipscombTickets.com