Getty Eli Pepper and the Lipscomb Bisons will host the Liberty Flames.
The Lipscomb Bisons will host the Liberty Flames at Allen Arena for a battle of the Atlantic Sun’s two top teams.
The game is scheduled to start at 7:30 p.m. ET. While it won’t be broadcast nationally on television anywhere in the US, you can still watch a live stream of the game on your computer, phone, or streaming device via ESPN+, the new digital streaming service from ESPN (no cable required) that has exclusive coverage to dozens of college basketball games — and several other sports — every week.
You can start a free seven-day trial of ESPN+ right here, and you can then watch a live stream of the game on your computer via ESPN.com, or on your phone (Android and iPhone compatible), tablet, Roku, Amazon Fire TV, Apple TV, Chromecast, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, or other compatible streaming device via the ESPN app.
If you can’t watch live, all games — including Liberty vs Lipscomb — that are streamed on ESPN+ are also available to be watched afterwards on-demand via ESPN.com or the ESPN app.
Liberty vs Lipscomb Preview
The Bisons (20-4 overall, 11-0 in the conference) dealt Liberty (21-5, 10-1) their sole Atlantic Sun loss back on January 29 in Lynchburg, Virginia, holding the Flames to 37.3 percent shooting and just seven assists to 12 turnovers.
“Lipscomb’s a really good team, and right now they are the team to beat in this league,” Liberty head coach Ritchie McKay said after the 79-59 defeat, according to The News & Advance. “… This is not doomsday. … We’re going to bounce back.”
The Flames have won all three of their matchups since, bouncing back by topping NJIT, Stetson, and Florida Gulf Coast.
“When you lost to Lipscomb like the way we did, it can feel like two losses,” McKay said after the victory over NJIT, according to the Augusta Free Press. “You could feel the deflation, so I mean it when I say it that I think tonight was a really mature win. I was so elated for our guys because they earned it, and they did it the hard way. NJIT is really good, and they were 18-5 for a reason. We had to earn this one tonight. I am really proud of our collective effort.”
Lipscomb is the only Atlantic Sun team with an unblemished record.
Their last time out, they shot 11-of-28 from deep (39.3 percent) and assisted on 20 of 26 made buckets to upend Jacksonville 86-77.
Senior forward Eli Pepper scored a career-high 27 points, going 6-of-7 from the field, 3-of-4 from deep, and 12-of-14 from the free-throw line. He added 14 rebounds, six assists, a steal, and a block.
He dropped an 11-point, 12-rebound double-double on the Dolphins in a road win earlier this season.
“My name just happened to be called in both Jacksonville games,” Pepper said, according to The Tennessean. “It’s a big thing that we talked about this year; just about trusting each other. When our name’s called we’ve got to be the one to step up.”
Lipscomb has now won at least 20 games in three straight campaigns; they’d reached that figure just once, in 2005-06, since joining the NCAA. The Bisons made the NCAA tournament for the first time in school history last year.
“What our staff wanted to do when we got here was to build something that was sustainable,” head coach Casey Alexander said, per The Tennessean. “It doesn’t mean that it’s going to be this way from now on. But three 20-win seasons in a row means that we’re not a flash-in-the-plan. It means that we’ve put the pieces in place to put us in position to do something like this.”
Alexander took over the program in the 2013-14 season.