Final Score: Lipscomb: 64, North Alabama: 74
Location: Florence, Ala. (Flowers Hall)
Records: Lipscomb: 13-7 (5-2, ASUN), North Alabama: 13-7 (5-2, ASUN)
THE SHORT STORY
Lipscomb fell 74-64 on the road at North Alabama on Thursday in front of a hostile road crowd, suffering its second loss in ASUN play.
HOW IT HAPPENED
The matchup started at a frenzied pace with a lot on the line for both squads. North Alabama came out at an aggressive pace, but the Bisons held its own. North Alabama held a 9-7 advantage at the first media timeout of the half.
Out of the break, Lipscomb scored the next four points to take an 11-9 advantage, its first of the night. The Bisons went on to hold a 15-13 advantage at the under-twelve media timeout.
The back-and-forth action continued with both teams fighting on both ends of the floor. At the final media timeout of the frame, North Alabama held a slight 29-27 advantage.
A 10-0 North Alabama run saw the Lions get out to a 34-27 advantage with just under two minutes left in the half.
The Bisons punched back with back-to-back triples from
Joe Anderson and
Gyasi Powell, to pull back within a point.
North Alabama scored the last bucket of the half and took a 36-33 advantage into the halftime break.
The Lions scored five-straight out of halftime for a 41-33 lead before
Will Pruitt scored from the charity stripe, getting Lipscomb back on the board. At the first media timeout of the second frame, the Lions held a 44-37 advantage.
Lipscomb went cold, not scoring for almost two and a half minutes which allowed UNA to swell its lead 51-37 forcing a
Lennie Acuff timeout.
The Bisons hung in and got the deficit back down to 55-44 at the under-twelve media timeout with the help of another Powell triple.
North Alabama continued to take advantage of poor shooting by the Bisons to balloon its lead back out 62-46 with just over seven minutes to play.
Lipscomb steadily chipped away at the lead, getting back within double-digits when Anderson nailed a triple, cutting the advantage 64-56 with just over four and a half to go.
The deficit proved to be too large as the Bisons ultimately fell 74-64 on the road.
HERD NOTES
- Anderson scored a game-high 21 points. Other double-digit Lipscomb scorers were Will Pruitt (10), Powell (16) and Ognacevic (15).
- Pruitt was Lipscomb's leading rebounder with five on the night.
- The Bisons shot 42-percent on the game to UNA's 47-percent.
- Lipscomb was out-rebounded 41-26.
UP NEXT
Lipscomb will continue its road stint on Saturday, Jan. 25 at Central Arkansas. Tipoff in Conway, Ark. Is set for 1 p.m. CT.
