Final Score – Lipscomb: 90, Bellarmine: 74
Location – Nashville, Tenn. (Allen Arena)
Records – Lipscomb: 19-11 (10-5, ASUN), Bellarmine: 8-22 (4-11, ASUN)
THE SHORT STORY
Lipscomb Men's Basketball soared to a 90-74 victory over Bellarmine Wednesday night in Allen Arena. The win secured an ASUN Quarterfinal home game on Tuesday, March 5.
HOW IT HAPPENED
Lipscomb got off to a slow start as Bellarmine took an early 6-0 lead, but
Owen McCormack got the Bisons on the board with a triple and a traditional three-point play to quickly tie things back up at six each.
Even though Lipscomb was shooting at just a 20-percent clip at the first timeout, the Bisons kept things close, trailing 8-6 at the 14:11 mark.
Neither team was able to hit much throughout the next few minutes as the next 13 shots of the game were misses. Lipscomb trailed 8-7 at the under-12 media timeout as the Bisons were shooting just 15-percent.
The offense picked up on both sides of the ball as the Lipscomb bench players gave the Bisons a lift, including buckets from
Dylan Faulkner and
Grant Asman. With 7:54 left to play in the second half, the game was knotted up at 16 a piece.
The Bisons started to light up offensively with triples from Asman and
AJ McGinnis and used an 8-0 run, capped off by a
Cody Head and-one, just before the final media timeout of the half to get out to a 32-24 advantage.
Lipscomb ultimately took a 35-30 lead into the halftime break.
Out of the break, Lipscomb was firing on all cylinders and took its largest lead of the night, 53-40, when
Will Pruitt nailed a triple through contact and finished off the four-point play.
The three-ball started to really fall for the Bisons as
Joe Anderson and Pruitt hit back-to-back triples for a 61-43 advantage. Lipscomb was shooting 71-percent from three on the night after Pruitt's triple.
Bellarmine tightened things up with a 6-0 run, shaving the Lipscomb lead 63-56 before McGinnis got Lipscomb back on the board with a pair of free throws.
Bellarmine continued to chip away at the Lipscomb lead and shaved the Bisons' advantage 67-71 at the under-eight media timeout of the second half.
McCormack got things going back in Lipscomb's favor with an and-one and Anderson followed that with a triple as the Bisons' lead got back out to 72-61.
The Bisons continued on a 10-0 run as Pruitt once-again finished through contact, ballooning the lead 77-61. At the final media timeout of the game, Lipscomb held a 79-68 advantage over the Knights with 3:37 left on the clock.
Lipscomb continued to play well down the stretch and came away with a 90-74 victory on Wednesday night.
HERD NOTES
- Lipscomb's win clinched a home ASUN Quarterfinal game on Tuesday, March 5 at 7 p.m. CT.
- Pruitt led all scorers with 27 points. Other double-digit scorers included McGinnis (18), McCormack (12) and Anderson (12).
- Pruitt led all rebounders with seven and added six assists.
- Lipscomb shot 55-percent from the floor and 65-percent from three-point range, making 13 triples on the night.
- The Bisons out-rebounded the Knights 30-28.
UP NEXT
Lipscomb has its final regular season game on Friday, March 1. The Bisons welcome EKU to Allen Arena at 7 p.m. CT.
