Lipscomb falls a point short of NCAA record for margin of victory

11/14/2007 5:13 PM

By ANTONIO GONZALEZ
Associated Press Writer

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) - Lipscomb couldn't even slow itself down on the way to a 101-point win.

The Lady Bisons' 123-22 win over Fisk was a point shy of the Division I women's record for biggest winning margin on Tuesday night.

``It quickly got away,'' Lipscomb coach Frank Bennett said. ``We couldn't just hold the ball, and our players are too competitive to not keep fighting.''

The record was set by Grambling in a 139-37 win over Jarvis Christian on Feb. 12, 1986. Lipscomb scored the most points in the school's NCAA era, and tied its record for most points in a game. The Lady Bisons also scored 123 points in 1996 against Bethel and again in 1997 against Tennessee Temple.

Bennett said he emptied his bench earlier in the second half to try and slow his team.

Whoops.

Lipscomb's bench scored 86 points, and with 1:49 to go, was six points from the record. They attempted just one shot.

``We weren't trying to go for a record,'' Bennett said. ``We've been on their side before. We backed off our full-court defense and just tried to work on things. Fisk played hard, they just played us on the wrong night.''

Fisk coach Shavicka Newsome apologized and said the team was crushed.

``We're all down,'' Newsome said. ``We don't want to embarrass the university. We're going to be eating some egos trying to figure out what went wrong.''

Valerie Bronson had 20 points and 15 rebounds to lead the Lady Bisons, who shot 57 percent from the field. Fisk's leading scorer was Tia Williams, with eight points. Fisk was 9-for-54 from the field.

Lipscomb outrebounded Fisk 67-19 and led 61-10 at the half. Every player scored for the Lady Bisons, and five players hit double figures against Division III Fisk, a historically black university in Nashville.

Newsome said Fisk never thought of forfeiting the game, and she didn't think Lipscomb was intentionally running up the score.

``I don't expect them to lay down for us,'' she said. ``We're all competitors.''

Lipscomb and Fisk's annual meeting has been lopsided of late, but never by quite so enormous a margin. The Lady Bisons defeated the Lady Bulldogs 93-35 last year, and 92-56 in 2005.

Still, the schools intend to continue playing annually.

``I don't think there's any hard feelings,'' Bennett said. ``We won. They lost.''

Only this time by 101 points.