Second half struggles cost Bisons in ASUN Tournament

Thursday, March 4

Jacksonville, Fla.

6:00 PM

Lipscomb University

15-12,9-6ASUN

#6 FGCU

10-7,4-5ASUN

Team	1	2	F
FGCU	31	41	72
Lipscomb	35	25	60

Second half struggles cost Bisons in ASUN Tournament

3/5/2021 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball

Box Score

By: Kirk Downs

JACKSONVILLLE – For the first time in four years the Lipscomb men's basketball team will not play in the ASUN Conference championship game as the No. 3 Bisons fell to No. 6 FGCU, 72-60,

Thursday night in first round action at Swisher Gym in Jacksonville, Florida.

The loss ends the season for Lipscomb at 15-12, while the Eagles (10-7) advanced to Friday's semifinal where they will take on No. 5 North Alabama.

KJ Johnson scored 18 points to lead the purple and gold on 8-of-18 shooting, while ASUN first teamer Ahsan Asadullah pulled down his fifth double-double with 14 points and a game high 11 rebounds.

HOW IT HAPPENED
The Bisons had their offense rolling in the early minutes where after trailing 8-6, they used a 21-2 run over a six-minute stretch to take a 27-10 lead midway through the first half.

Johnson scored six points in the run, while Tanner Shulman and Will Pruitt each added 3-pointers to give Lipscomb all the momentum.

Offense is rolling early as 6? Bisons have are already in the scoring column.

Lipscomb 24, FGCU 10 | 1H - 10:28#HornsUp pic.twitter.com/enmtCSpyBT
— Lipscomb Men's Basketball (@LipscombMBB) March 5, 2021

From that point on, the night belonged to FGCU.

An 11-0 run from the Eagles cut the deficit to six, before another 6-0 run to end the half sent Lipscomb into the break up just 35-31.

The Bisons seemed to get it going out of the locker room with a Jake Wolfe triple, but that would be the last made field goal for the No. 3 seed until another three from Shulman at the 11:22 mark.

By that time, FGCU had built a 53-44 lead.

Over an 11-minute stretch, the Eagles went on a tear outscoring the Bisons 30-to-8 behind 14 points from Cyrus Largie to build a 70-47 lead. In the stretch, FGCU hit 13-of-18 from the field, while

Lipscomb went just 2-of-17 overall and 1-of-9 from deep.

The last four minutes Lipscomb outscored FGCU 13-2, but the deficit was too large to overcome.

HERD NOTES

The Bisons shot just 28 percent in the second half, compared to 57 percent from the Eagles, and were outscored 41-25.
Lipscomb did outrebound FGCU 42-38, including 15-10 on the offensive end.
The story of the game was 18 turnovers from the Bisons that FGCU turned into 22 points.
Pruitt led all players off the bench with eight points, while Shulman, Ferguson and Wolfe each added six.
Parker Hazen scored two points and pulled down eight rebounds.
The Bisons went 6-of-26 from deep and 6-of-13 from the free throw line.