The Lipscomb Bisons (17-11, ASUN 8-5) stampeded the UCA men’s basketball team (9-20, ASUN 5-8) on Feb. 17, squashing the Bears 85-68.
“Definitely a tough one. I thought we could’ve pulled out the win but defensively I think we had some miscues later on in the game that kind of let them stretch out their lead too,” graduate student guard Daniel Sofield said.
Even with the game ending in a loss, Sofield proved to be a great addition on the court, scoring a new career high at UCA with a total of 20 points in the game.
Sofield racked up the most points of any Bear at the game with junior guard/forward Elias Cato coming up behind him with 12 points.
Sofield said, “You know, I’ve just been struggling shooting the ball the past couple of weeks and odds have been pretty frustrating but I kind of just had to settle down, relax and get back to the mechanics — don’t think so much when I shoot and kind of just let the ball fly.”
For the past five games, Sofield has only managed to score 3 to 8 points per game.
Coach Anthony Boone said, “He got some good looks, and he shot them with confidence and once he made a couple he really felt it. A lot of people, most of our opponents, have a lot of attention on Tucker Anderson. With that, Daniel will get loose and get some looks.”
Although freshman forward Tucker Anderson has become a reliable addition to the Bears’ lineup, his performance points-wise failed to measure up to his past four games, in which Anderson scored 12-14 points.
The game began with a missed 3-pointer by senior guard Masai Olowokere. The Bisons quickly capitalized on the botched shot as freshman guard Cody Head sank a layup.
Around 40 seconds later Lipscomb junior guard AJ McGinnis landed a jump shot in the paint, picking up yet another 2 points for the Bisons.
Just 16 seconds later Cato made a jump shot for the Bears, their first 2 points of the game.
Although Lipscomb made a handful of 3-pointers throughout the first half, a majority of their points came from layups and jump shots in the paint.
“Well, we were preparing to try to defend them shooting threes, which we didn’t do a great job starting off,” Boone said. “We did a little better as the game got along, but we gave up too much, too much of them going to the basket and we got a little spread out. They were able to take us off the dribble and get to the rim and despite how well they shot it. That’s what really hurt us was how many baskets they got in the paint.”
By the end of the first half, Lipscomb held the lead 45-36.
With a little over 13 minutes left in the game and Lipscomb 9 points ahead, the Bears had a sudden rush of points.
Sofield landed a fastbreak 3-pointer only a few seconds after the Bisons scored a jump shot. Sofield then came back and gave the Bears 2 more points with a jump shot in the paint.
Following a foul from Lipscomb freshman forward Dylan Faulkner, UCA sophomore guard Carl Daughtery Jr. scored the Bears a 3-pointer, putting UCA only 1 point behind the Bisons 58-57.
However, even the surge of points could not put the Bears over the Lipscomb, as the Bisons swiftly regained their lofty lead before the game ended with a score of 85-68.
“We just had a good run starting the second half. That was it,” Boone said. “Lipscomb had maybe a little bit of a letdown. We had a little bit more energy coming out of the locker room from halftime. But then after that, well, they came back and did what they did and we didn’t have much of an answer for them.”
The Bears’ next game will pit them against Bellarmine University (6-21, ASUN 2-10) at 5:30 p.m., Feb. 22, in Louisville, Kentucky.