Lipscomb takes down North Alabama on senior night
The Lipscomb Bisons defeated the North Alabama Lions 73-51 on Saturday to move to 11-5 in conference play and bring home a win on senior night.
Four of the Bisons were honored in the pregame ceremony: graduate student forward Cole Middleton, senior guard/forward Kellan Boylan, senior center Charlie Williams and graduate student forward Grant Asman. In addition, two of the team’s senior managers were honored, Luke Jackson and Noah Magee.
Williams got the scoring started with a three-pointer and Asman made a layup to give Lipscomb a 5-4 lead at the first media timeout.
It was a sluggish first half offensively for Lipscomb, as they trailed 10-9 at the 11:49 mark, and found themselves in an 18-11 hole with 9:41 remaining in the half.
The offensive spark came from the hands of redshirt junior guard Ross Candelino, as he hit two straight threes, cutting the deficit to 20-19 at the 7:58 media timeout. Candelino made five 3-pointers to contribute to the victory, and led the team with 16 points on the evening.
“Everybody [had] confidence in each other, I think I was just the one that had the open shots,” Candelino said. “I guarantee if it was anybody else… I think they would’ve had the same results. It just happened to be me tonight.”
After their first half offense struggle, Lipscomb entered halftime trailing North Alabama, 26-24.
Both teams started to answer the call offensively in the second half, and it was tied at 34 at the first timeout. By the 11:45 timeout, Lipscomb was leading UNA, 43-37.
The difference in the game came after the 7:49 media timeout, where the Bisons led, 50-43.
Lipscomb rattled off a 16-2 scoring run and never looked back, as they outscored the Lions 23-8 in the final eight minutes.
“That was a tremendous defensive effort there in the second half,” Lipscomb Head Coach Kevin Carroll said. “Nothing came easy for [North Alabama] in the second half, that’s a credit to the guys effort.”
Lipscomb held the Lions to just 51 points, their lowest outing of the season, and to just six percent from the 3-point line (1 for 16).
Lipscomb showcased just about everything the fans could want for the final game in Allen Arena this season, from an alley-oop jam by Asman to a block off of the backboard from Boylan. It was everything the players wanted and all that the fans had hoped for in the final home game.
The Bisons will travel to West Georgia this Wednesday for a six o’clock game, before closing out the regular season at Eastern Kentucky at 3 p.m. on February 28th.
Featured image taken by Micah Barkley.
