RICHMOND, Ky. –  Lipscomb women's basketball took on Eastern Kentucky in the final matchup of ASUN regular season play. The Bisons fought off a pesky Colonels squad and saw out a 71-68 victory on the road, their ninth road win of the season, and locked up the fourth seed in the conference tournament and a home game in the ASUN Quarterfinals on Saturday March 9.

Blythe Pearson and Molly Heard led the way for the Bisons in the win. Pearson earned her second double-double of the year and fifth of her career, scoring 20 points while bringing down a team-high ten rebounds. Pearson also became the program's 9th player to reach 1,000 points for her career and is now just the second player in program history to log 1,000 points and 500 rebounds.

Heard led the team in scoring on the afternoon, putting in a team-high and tied for game-high, 21 points on 7-of-12 shooting from the floor. The sophomore also brought down eight rebounds in the outing, including a team-best three offensive boards. Like Pearson, Heard also reached a milestone against the Colonels, surpassing the 500-point mark for her career, joining Aleah Sorrentino and Claira McGowan, who also did so this season. 

HOW IT HAPPENED:

Turnovers plagued both teams in the early portion of the first quarter. Each team ended with five turnovers in the first quarter, but neither team could get much out of those mistakes, resulting in a low scoring first.

Midway through the frame, a Heard jumper around the rim gave Lipscomb a 10-6 lead. After two free throws a few possessions later by the Colonels that cut the Bisons' lead in half, Ainhoa Cea converted on a driving basket inside to put the Bisons back up four. However, the Colonels closed the quarter on a 6-1 run to take a one-point lead into the second quarter. 

The Bisons doubled up the Colonels in the second quarter, outscoring them 20-10 in the frame. Lipscomb closed the quarter on an 11-0 run and held EKU scoreless for the last four minutes of the period to take a 33-24 advantage into the locker room. 

Blythe Pearson carried the scoring load for the Bisons, scoring 10 of her 20 points in the second while shooting 4-of-5 from the field, including two big three-pointers in the final two minutes of the half. 

EKU slowly chipped away at the Bisons' single-digit lead in the third, outscoring the Bisons by four in the period. The Colonels cut their deficit to as little as three on a two-point basket down low with 55 seconds to go in the quarter. But still, Lipscomb held up and held on to a five-point edge entering the final ten minutes as Heard put in on another basket inside to put the Bisons up five at the end of the third. 

A well-executed inbound play resulting in an and-one opportunity for Heard, which she converted on, to put the Bisons back up eight. Lipscomb held a steady lead of two or three possessions until the halfway mark of the final quarter, as the Colonels showed some life starting with a floater that sank with 5:22 on the clock to bring their deficit down to two. 

Lipscomb was able to stretch it's lead back out to eight on a mid-range step-back jumper from Claira McGowan, roughly three minutes later, and then up to six on a critical triple from Taylor Bowen with 1:20 left to play.

However, four seconds in to the shot clock of the next possession, the Bisons were called for a shooting foul, resulting in two made free throws by the Colonels, then a basket off a turnover, cut the Bisons' lead back down to two with 1:05 left to play.

With time winding down on the Bisons' offense possession, Pearson got a fade away jumper to fall right in front of the Bisons' bench to stretch the lead back out to four. Lipscomb got a stop on the other end, forcing EKU to play the foul game for the final 20 seconds.

Taylor Bowen, who finished with eight points, seven of which came in the second half, put in one of her two free throws expand Lipscomb's led to five with six seconds remaining. The Colones drove down the court and got a last-second layup to drop, but it was too little too late, as Lipscomb took care of business on the road with a three-point win to secure home court in their first ASUN Tournament matchup in a week. 

HERD NOTES

• The Bisons shot 44 percent from the floor in the win and held one of the best field goal shooting teams in the conference in EKU to a 37 percent clip Saturday afternoon.
• Lipscomb won the battle on the glass 41-33, improving to 15-1 when they out-rebound their opponents this season. 
• The Bisons improved to 2-0 this season against EKU and have now won the last three meetings. 

UP NEXT
The Bisons will host Eastern Kentucky this go around in their Quarterfinal matchup of the ASUN Championships on Saturday, March 9 at 4 p.m. CT. Continue to check lipscombsports.com and the team's social media accounts (@lipscombwbb on IG and @lipscomb_wbb on X) for the most up-to-date information on Lipscomb women's basketball.