The Boulevard belongs to the Bruins for another year
Lipscomb women’s and men’s basketball took on the Belmont Bruins in a doubleheader Battle of the Boulevard, the two colleges’ historic rivalry games.
Belmont swept the doubleheader, with the Lady Bruins winning in a blowout and the Bruins prevailing by seven points.
Located just two miles down Nashville’s Belmont Boulevard from each other, Lipscomb University and Belmont University are the closest-by-distance rivalry in the NCAA. Each year, their sports teams face off against each other in the Battle of the Boulevard, determining who will get to “own the Boulevard” for the year.
The basketball games were hosted at Belmont this year, in a doubleheader style. The Lady Bisons took on the Lady Bruins first, followed by the men.
The Lady Bisons, shooting for 47.7% in field goals and 36.4% from outside the key, fell to the Lady Bruins 60-80 points on Wednesday night. Though the Lady Bruins only shot 43.5% in field goals and 29% for three-pointers, they made up for that by scoring 30 points off of turnovers and racking up 17 steals.
Starting senior guard Molly Heard scored the most for the Bisons, bringing home 15 points. She also totaled two steals, five rebounds and five assists. Junior guard Elena Bertrand brought in 12 points for the Bisons, along with one steal and five rebounds of her own.
The energy in the Curb Center began to rise as the men took to the court, both student sections roaring in support of their team. The Lipscomb student and fan section was packed with purple, while the Belmont sections were a sea of white. Over 4,100 people filled the seats in the Curb Center, noise and energy escalated by Belmont’s pep band and both Lipscomb and Belmont’s cheer teams.
Though the Bisons held on for much of the game, at times even leading the Bruins, they eventually fell 75-68. By the first media timeout, the Bruins led the Bisons 9-5. They held onto their lead for the next several minutes, but the Bisons would answer.
The two teams chased each other, leading and taking the lead, matching the score for tie after tie, drawing ahead and falling behind in a circular pattern. The Bisons took the lead, 19-17, after chasing the Bruins to pull off a tie at 16. Then they went around again, the Bruins tieing at 19, then inching forward, the Bisons following and taking the lead back.
The first half closed with the Bruins just one point ahead of the Bisons, 25-24.
Lipscomb had been struggling to score in the first half, shooting just 29%, although they were able to hold the Bruins defensively with 11 forced turnovers and 23 rebounds, 11 of which were offensive, in the first half alone.
The second half saw the Bisons unable to shoot for the first seven minutes, but redshirt junior guard Ross Candelino was finally able to put them back on the board with a three-pointer. The team rallied from there, triples from Candelino, redshirt junior guard Ethan Duncan, senior center Charlie Williams and graduate student forward Grant Asman pulling them ever closer to the Bruins.
Asman drained three in a row from outside the key in under two minutes, bringing the Bisons within just eight points of the Bruins with a little under four on the clock. The leading scorer for the evening among the Bisons, Asman brought home 13 points.
The Bisons shot 32% for the game, but were able to hold the Bruins to shooting just 43% from the floor.
The Lady Bisons will be on the road next, taking on Tennessee Tech on Monday, Dec. 1, at 6pm. The men will be home next, tipping off against Western Carolina at 4pm on Saturday, Nov. 22.
Featured image taken by Micah Barkley.
