NASHVILLE, TENN. – Lipscomb wrapped a
24-5 run around half-time and went on to defeat Campbell 82-52
Thursday night in the quarterfinal round of the Atlantic Sun
Conference Championship at Allen Arena.
The fourth-seeded Bisons
(17-13) extended their winning streak to nine games. Lipscomb will face top-seeded
Jacksonville (17-12) in Friday's 8:30 p.m. (CST) semifinal.
Third-seeded Belmont (19-11)
defeated sixth seed Mercer 65-64 Thursday afternoon and will meet
second-seeded East Tennessee State (21-10) in Friday's 6:00 p.m.
semi.
Campbell (14-16) saw its four-game
winning streak end as Lipscomb extended a 35-25 half-time edge by
hitting 12 of its first 16 shots in the second period.
Adnan Hodzic led four Bisons
in double figures with 16 points on 6-of-10 from the field and
4-of-5 from the line.
Brandon Brown added 14 points and 10 rebounds (8 offensive), while
Josh Slater chipped in 11 and Michael Teller 10.
Kyle Vejraska led Campbell
with 11 points and seven boards. Junard Hartley added 10 points and
four assists. Campbell
guard Lorne Merthie, who averaged 17.8 points over his previous
four games was held to 4 points on 1-of-16 shooting. Jonathan Rodriguez, who entered the
game averaging 16 points per outing, finished with only six on
2-of-8 from the field.
Campbell made just 8-of-27 shots in
the second half, while Lipscomb hit 19-of-34 during the
period. The Bisons
converted 15 offensive rebounds into an 18-3 edge in second-chance
points. Lipscomb, which
entered the game leading the league in rebounding margin, held a
44-26 advantage on the glass.
The Bisons shot 48 percent
(31-64) from the floor compared to just 35 percent (17-48) for the
Camels.
Lipscomb went on an 11-2 run
fueled by a pair of threes from Michael Lusk and one from Brian
Wright to build a 10-point lead. Lusk's trey with 6:54 left pushed the
Bisons advantage to 26-16.
However, the Camels scored
eight unanswered points, capped by back-to-back triples by Hartley
and Vejraska and cut the gap to 26-24 with 5:41 remaining. The Bisons again stretched the
gap to 10 at the break (35-25) as the Camels went 0-for-4 from the
floor and made seven turnovers in the last 4:50 of the
period.
