NASHVILLE - Using an explosive first half that saw 10 treys go down, the Lipscomb men’s basketball claimed a 77-71 ASUN Conference win over No. 1 Liberty Saturday afternoon on Senior Day to wrap up regular season action.

“I am real proud of our guys. Tyler Murray had the scout and he had the guys really locked in defensively,” head coach Lennie Acuff said. “We had a good week of practice, but when you make 10 three-pointers in the first half, you’re going to win a lot of those games.

“We made shots today, and that gave us an edge mentally. We came ready to play.”

With the win, the Bisons finish 14-15 overall and 9-7 in league play and will start the ASUN Championship on Tuesday as the No. 3 seed. They will host No. 6 FGCU at 7 p.m. in Allen Arena.

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“The biggest thing going into today was they guys knew it was a chance to get the three seed and to get over .500 in league play,” Acuff said. “We’ve kept the focus where our feet are, and we’ve done that all year. Every day we’ve shown up and worked hard.

“At the turn in conference play, we were in eighth place and 3-5. In the second half we went 6-2 and were able to defeat every team in league at least once.”

The Purple and Gold could not have had a better start against the ASUN co-champs as they were white hot, knocking down the first 10 field goals, including six from long distance, to jump out to a 29-6 lead at the 11:24 mark.

After struggling to find any rhythm in the early minutes, Liberty (27-4, 13-3 ASUN) put together a 13-0 run to make it a 29-19 game, but the Bisons offense was too much.

Buckets from KJ Johnson, Andrew Fleming and Greg Jones sparked an 8-0 run and pushed the Bisons lead back to 18. Fleming connected on his third triple of the half in the final minute to send Lipscomb into the break, up 47-35.

The Bisons shot 81 percent after a 17-for-21 first-half effort and scored more points in the first 20 minutes than the Flames vaunted defense had allowed in any half this season.

The second half saw Lipscomb withstanding a handful of runs from Liberty, occasionally making it a two-possession game. But each time the Bisons offense would come through and stretch the lead back out.

After a 7-2 Liberty run cut Lipscomb’s lead to 70-65 with 3:49 remaining, the Bisons used a 5-0 spurt to stretch their lead back to 10 and put the game away.

On senior day when Buckland, Fleming and John Matt Merritt were honored in a pregame ceremony, the Bisons never trailed in the game, leading for 38:57.

“I thought today was the best game Andrew has played all year long on both ends.” Acuff said. “Buck did what Buck does, he stole a ball and made a layup late in the game to help secure the win.” 

HERD NOTES

• Lipscomb shot 57% from the floor in the game, making 26-of-46 field goals. They also went 11-of-15 from deep (73%) and 14-of-24 at the stripe (58%).
• Liberty shot 47% overall and connected on 9-of-20 triples.
• The Bisons won the battle on the boards, 32-28.
• Fleming led four Bisons in double figures with 20 points on 6-of-8 shooting. He also grabbed six boards.
• Ahsan Asadullah added 18 points, eight assists and four rebounds.
• Johnson recorded 14 points, while Greg Jones contributed 11.
• Buckland totaled eight points and eight rebounds with a pair of assists.
• Lipscomb had 19 assists and turned the balls over 11 times.

UP NEXT

Lipscomb will host No. 6 seed FGCU at 7 p.m. Tuesday in the first round of the ASUN Tournament. The Bisons and Eagles split their regular season meetings, with each side winning at home.

“The crowd was great today,” Acuff said. “We had 3,600 there today and we need that same kind of crowd on Tuesday.”