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Lipscomb University

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GREG JONES
73
Lipscomb Lips 12-18,5-10 ASUN
76
Winner Bellarmine BU 17-12,11-4 ASUN
Lipscomb Lips
12-18,5-10 ASUN
73
Final
76
Bellarmine BU
17-12,11-4 ASUN
Winner
Score By Periods
Team 1 2 F
Lipscomb Lips 35 38 73
Bellarmine BU 44 32 76

Game Recap: Men's Basketball |

Bisons drop nail-biter at Bellarmine after falling behind early

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Lipscomb men's basketball didn't have an answer for Bellarmine Wednesday night on the road as the Knights shot 54% and defeated the Bisons 76-73 on senior night in Freedom Hall.

After falling behind as many as 15 points in the first half, the purple and gold battled their way back to within one point and had a shot at the buzzer to send the game to overtime.

Will Pruitt had another big game for the Bisons, scoring a team-high 18 points on 5-of-9 shooting with three triples. Greg Jones scored 13 points and also knocked down three treys, while Trae Benham contributed 10 points with seven rebounds.

Bellarmine led wire-to-wire in the first half after CJ Fleming drilled a three-pointer to get the night started.

Benham got the Bisons on the board as Ahsan Asadullah found him cutting through the lane before laying it off the glass with his left hand for the first bucket of the night. Pruitt knocked down the first triple for the purple and gold and then hit a pair of free throws a couple minutes later to even the score at 7-7, but the Knights used an 8-0 run to get some distance.

Pruitt kept the Bisons within striking distance with another three and a free throw, but Bellarmine used a 10-1 run to stretch its lead to 30-14 with 9:20 on the clock.

Greg Jones scored five straight points with a triple and a driving layup at the rack before Pruitt hit another one from deep and Tanner Shulman followed suit to get the Bisons back within single digits.
 

Asadullah knocked down two free throws to get the Bisons within 44-35 at the half.

Bellarmine shot 61.3 percent in the first half, despite shooting as high as 73% with just a few minutes before the break, and knocked down 19-of-31 shots. Lipscomb shot the ball well, hitting at a 50-percent clip, but attempted 11 less shots than the Knights.

The deficit was spurred by eight Lipscomb turnovers, leading to 10 points for Bellarmine.

Lipscomb came out of the locker room and hit its first five shots, all by different players, to cut the deficit to 54-50 five minutes into the half. The Knights quickly got back-to-back buckets to stretch the game back out to eight points, but the Bisons never went away.
 

As the clock neared the 12-minute mark, Jacob Ognacevic came up with a big three-point play after grabbing an offensive rebound and going back up to draw the contact. His bucket made it a 59-55 game and from there, the game seesawed back and forth but never Bellarmine never led by more than six points the rest of the night.

KJ Johnson drilled his only 3-point attempt of the night at the 8:30 mark to make it a one-possession game and then hit a pair of free throws a couple minutes later. It was then Trae Benham's time as the freshman scored four straight points, including a contested triple to keep the Bisons within three.
 

Down three with 2:54 to play, Jones got fouled on a three-point shot. After missing the first, he connected on the next two to pull the purple and gold within one point, the closest they had been the 16:36 mark of the first half when the game was tied at 7-7.

After getting a stop on the other end, Lipscomb had the ball down 69-68 with a chance to take its first lead, but a double-team on Asadullah forced the big man to try a cross-court pass that BU's Dylan Penn picked off, which led to a 3-pointer and a four-point advantage for the Knights.

The Bisons didn't help themselves down the stretch as they missed a baseline jumper and turned the ball over twice more on the next three trips, while trailing by four.

Jones and Pruitt did their best to give the Bisons a chance as the former drained a heavily contested 3-pointer from the right wing and the latter took the ball coast to coast, each making it a 2-point game. The purple and gold had one final chance after BU missed the first of two free throws with four seconds remaining. Pruitt took the inbounds and got it up court before handing it off to Jones who heaved a shot from the timeline that banked off the backboard at the buzzer.
 
NOTES
  • Lipscomb shot 46.7 percent (21-45) from the floor.
  • The Bisons knocked down 9-of-24 from long distance and 22-of-26 at the free throw line. It marked the seventh time this season they've hit 20+ at the stripe in a game.
  • The Bisons outrebounded the Knights 29-24 and scored 12 second-chance points.
  • Lipscomb turned the ball over 14 times, compared to nine for Bellarmine. The Knights turned those miscues in 18 points, while the Bisons scored just eight second-chance points.
  • Bellarmine doubled the Bisons in points in the paint, 48-24.
  • Asadullah scored eight points, grabbed six rebounds and dished a team-high six assists. He also had a team-high five turnovers. He was credited with just rebound in the second half.
  • Parker Hazen, Johnson and Tommy Murr each added six points.
  • Pruitt scored 14 of his 18 points in the first half.
 

FROM THE BENCH
 

 
UP NEXT
It comes down to the regular season final on Saturday to determine Lipscomb's seeding in next week's ASUN Championship. Among other scenarios, a win would secure the No. 4 seed in the division.

The Bisons will face off with Central Arkansas in Allen Arena at 1 p.m. Saturday on Senior Day.  A reminder to fans that the men's game will be played first, followed by the women's game.

 
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