Photo Feature
By: Mark McGee
The last time Lipscomb University and Belmont University played a men's basketball game one school had a different coach, one school had a different mascot and both schools played in different arenas.
Tuesday night the old magic of the rivalry was back with a near-capacity crowd creating noise on a near-deafening level as the Bisons fell 66-64 in overtime. The two teams had not met since March of 1996.
"I didn't see any empty seats," said Lipscomb freshman Brian Fisk. "It was a great game with great people and a great atmosphere."
Feeding off the largest crowd to see the Bisons play at home this season, Lipscomb's Albert Hacker scored on an opening lay-up. The Bisons never trailed in the first half, taking advantage of a poor shooting effort from the Bruins.
"There was definitely something different in here," said Hacker. "Coming out at the beginning of the game and at the end of half-time and hearing everybody screaming at the top of their lungs for you gave us chill bumps."
"I wasn't disappointed with the crowd. I was hoping there would be a lot of people. The fans did a great job."
The Bisons opened up an 11-point lead with 16 seconds left in the half on a pair of free throws by Hacker. Lipscomb closed out the half with a 35-26 advantage.
"We were rebounding," said Fisk. "We didn't let them get any second shots. They had zero offensive rebounds in the first half. We had 21 rebounds to their seven in the first half."
The Bisons controlled the game for most of the second half, but in the final five minutes the Bruins went on a 13-0 run that set the stage of overtime at 56-56.
The Bisons opened overtime with a jumper from Chad Hartman, but they weren't able to take complete control. With the score tited 60-60 with 2:01 left, the Bruins scored on a lay-up by Brian Collins and a four-for-four free throw shooting effort by Steve Drabyn.
The Bisons made two-out-of-four free throws down the stretch. Trailing 66-64 with seven seconds left the Bisons had one more chance to score but Jason Jackson missed a lay-up with four second remaining.
"I'm proud of the way our guys fought and did what we asked them to do," Sanderson said. "
With Belmont sitting 12-5, 7-3 in the Atlantic Sun, and Lipscomb with a record of 5-13, 2-8 in the conference, the feeling among the media and most nonpartial observers was that Belmont would win big.
"I think the media probably thought it wasn't going to be a close game," Sanderson said. "No one said it, but that is what you insinuated. That was fine. They have played better than we have. We just didn't get it done down the stretch."
Adam Mark had a game-high 24 points for the Bruins. Also in double figures were Brian Collins with 14, Steve Drabyn with 11 and Jese Snyder with 10.
Fisk led Lipscomb with 18 points. Hacker finished with 16. Hartman added 12. Hacker finished with nine rebounds and Hartman and Fisk each had eight as the Bisons held a 42-32 edge on the boards.
The two teams meet against on Feb. 13 at the Curb Center.