NASHVILLE, TENN. Adnan Hodzic scored 21
points and Lipscomb defeated cold-shooting Campbell 76-60 Saturday
night in the Atlantic Sun Conference regular season finale for both
teams at Allen Arena.
Hodzic made his first
seven shots of the game and the Bisons sprinted to a 21-4
lead. Campbell (10-19,
5-11) never closed the gap to single digits and suffered its
seventh-straight loss heading into
Wednesday's 8:15 p.m. (CST) Atlantic Sun tournament quarterfinal
against top-seeded Belmont.
Lipscomb
(15-15, 8-8) won for the seventh time in nine outings heading into
next week's league tourney, which it will host at Allen
Arena.
Hodzic finished the game
8-of-13 from the floor and grabbed a game-high 9 rebounds. LaKory Daniels added 13 and Josh
Slater 12. Eddie Ard, who
had a career-high 35 in Lipscomb's 86-79 overtime win at Campbell
on Jan. 3, finished with just seven Saturday night on 3-of-8
shooting.
Hodzic scored 15 points in
the first half and Lipscomb jumped to a 43-24 halftime lead. Daniels added 10 in the opening
period for the Bisons, who hit 16-of-31 shots (52 percent) in the
first half, while Campbell made just 8-of-33 (24 percent) before
the break.
Campbell was able to cut the margin to
65-55 with 3:00 remaining on Reggie Bishop's 3-pointer that capped
a 12-3 run, but drew no closer.
Julius Perkins tied his
season high with 13 points on 5-of-7 from the floor and 3-of-6 from
the line to lead the Camels. Bishop added 12 on 5-of-15 shooting,
while Rodriguez was held to a season-low 10 on just 2-of-5 from the
field and 6-of-10 free throws. The sophomore did manage to reach
double figure points for the 37th-straight game.
Lipscomb finished the game
shooting 48 percent from the field and grabbed a 47-30 advantage on
the boards, converting 16 offensive rebounds into a 16-5 edge in
second-chance points.
Campbell shot just 32 percent for the game.
Lipscomb jumped to a 21-4
lead in the game's first 7:10 by hitting 10 of its first 16
shots. Campbell, meanwhile,
made only 1-of-12 from the floor to open the game.
Rodriguez, the A-Sun's
leading scorer at 21.4 points per game, picked up his third
personal foul with 9:51 left in the first half and the Camels
trailing by 27-10. The
6-foot-5 forward, one of only six players in the nation averaging
20-plus points and double-figure rebounds, was limited to four
points on 2-of-3 shooting and 0 rebounds in 10 minutes during the
opening stanza.
With his first bucket,
Rodriguez became only the fourth player in Campbell senior college
(since 1961-62) history to reach 600 points in a season, joining
Clarence Grier (739 in 86-87), Cordell Wise (607 in
69-70) and Sam Staggers (602 in 76-77).
The Bisons extended the
margin to 40-17 with 3:57 to go in the period, hitting 16 of their
first 26 (61.5 percent) shots and holding a 21-11 edge on the
glass. Hodzic made his
first 7 shots of the game and had 15 of LU's first 40
points.
Saturday's
result was uncharacteristic of the series between the A-Sun
rivals. Seven of the
previous eight games between the Camels and Bisons were decided by
seven, or fewer, points.