Saturday, November 05, 2011

NASHVILLE, Tenn. – Scoring only one basket in the final 5:33 of play, the Lipscomb women’s basketball team dropped a 51-45 exhibition contest to Harding on Saturday night at Allen Arena.

Trailing 44-40, senior guard Anna Bowers hit a three to pull Lipscomb within one at 44-43 with 5:33 to play but Harding went on a 7-2 run to close out the contest.

“We’ve got to execute better and keep our heads when things are not going better,” said Lipscomb head coach Frank Bennett.  “I thought we played really hard at times, especially in the first half defensively.  In the second half we got a little frustrated and our defense let down our rebounding a little bit on the defensive end.  We’ve got to be better at those areas.”

Lipscomb led 26-20 after the opening half of play behind an eight-point half for Bowers, who led Lipscomb in scoring with 13 on the night.  After holding Harding to 23 percent shooting in the first half, Lipscomb allowed HU to shoot 40.6% in the closing stanza. 

Lipscomb came out of halftime and scored the first four points pushing the lead to a game-high 10 points at 30-20 but Harding fought back and used a 9-0 run capped off by a Kallie Bartee three pointer at 11:55 to tie the game 38-38.

“I think we got frustrated and shot too quickly a lot of the time,” said Bennett. “We’ve got some things we’ve definitely got to work on mentally and physically. We’ve got to control the frustration level when things are not going well.

The Purple and Gold struggled behind the arch with a 6-for-30 night and at the charity stripe where Lipscomb was only 5-for-11 on free throws.  Lipscomb shot 27.9 percent from the floor while Harding posted a 32.8 percent mark.  Harding also held the advantage on the boards outrebounding Lipscomb 52-44.

Shana Holmes led Harding with a 14-point effort and Sierra Rollins chipped in 10 for HU.  Lipscomb junior Hannah Philips finished behind Bowers in the scoring with a nine-point night and added in seven rebounds.  Senior Leah McAlister lead Lipscomb on the boards hauling in nine rebounds.

The Lady Bisons open the 2011-12 regular season on Friday hosting Air Force at 5 p.m. at Allen Arena.  To purchase tickets go to http://www.LipscombTickets.com