JEFFERSON CITY, Tenn. – The Carson-Newman Eagles held visiting Brevard College to six points in the first 14 minutes en route to a 69-55 win in Holt Fieldhouse on Wednesday night in South Atlantic Conference action.
The Eagles built an early 22-6 and led by double figures for the final 30 minutes of the basketball game to pick up their seventh win in their last eight games.
C-N improves to 9-4 on the year and 2-1 in SAC play, while Brevard fall to 1-11 and 0-3 in league play.
The Eagles jumped out to an early behind a its zone defense that shut down Brevard offensively and put together just enough offense to seize control.
After a 1-of-6 start from three-point range, Antoine Davis and Ishmael Sanders connected on back-to-back triples to give the Eagles an early 11-4 lead. A layup by Marcellous Perez and a pair of free throws by Elliott Pope helped C-N build a 17-4 lead with 8:39 to play in the first half.
The Eagles frustrated Brevard to 21 percent (7-of-33) shooting, including 0-of-8 from behind the arc, in the opening half.
Brevard would start to find some offense late in the half as Darius Moose had an offensive putback and Drew Schauss finished an old-fashioned three-point play to make it 24-11 with 3:35 to play in the half.
Carson-Newman had a long-long range answer to start the second half. The Eagles connected on four three-pointers in the opening minutes of the second half, and continued to frustrate Brevard defensively, to build a 50-25 lead with 11:22 to play.
Sanders hit back-to-back threes during the run, while Davis and sophomore Ray Likely each added a triple.
Brevard woke up at the midway point of the second half, putting together a 12-0 run to cut the Eagle lead to 13 at 50-37 behind four-straight made field goals, adding some drama to the game's final seven minutes. C-N, however, answered with a quick 8-2 to push the lead back to 18 with five minutes to play, effectively putting the game out of reach.
Davis led the Eagles with 20 points and three blocked shots. Sanders added 19 on 5-of-8 from beyond the arc.
Senior Gaither Hendrix led Brevard with 14 points including a trio of long three-pointers in the second half to make things uncomfortable for the Eagles. Moose added 13 points and a game-high 18 rebounds to go with Schauss 10 points to lead the Tornados.
Brevard outrebound the Eagles 50-28 and had 26 offensive rebounds, but Carson-Newman blocked officially seven shots and forced 26 turnovers to offset the wild rebounding edge.
C-N returns to action on Saturday against Lenoir-Rhyne at 4 p.m in Holt Fieldhouse. Brevard travels to Mars Hill on Saturday.
-C-N-
