Sanders joins 1,000-point club as Carson-Newman dethrones Queens 90-55

JEFFERSON CITY, Tenn. – Carson-Newman (8-1, 1-1 SAC) started Tuesday night's game at Holt Fieldhouse on a 13-3 run and never looked back in a 90-55 trouncing of regional foe Queens (4-4).  

The Eagles saw Ish Sanders (Cleveland, Tenn.) crest the 1,000-point threshold for his career with a 25-point night.  Meanwhile, Antoine Davis (Rustburg, Va.) obliterated his career high by nine points with a 36-point, net-torching effort. 

Sanders was 9-of-16 from the field and 7-of-14 from three point land.  On the other hand, Davis went 13-of-18 from the field while burying eight of his 10 three pointers. 

"I know in my tenure here, that's been the most impressive one-two punch performance that I've seen," Benson said. "They brought it and responded to the challenge that this needed to be a statement game."

Carson-Newman blistered the nets, shooting 59.6 percent from the floor on 34-for-57 shooting. 

The Eagles made assists on 28 of those 34 made field goals.  Carson-Newman had seen players dish out five or more assists in a single game seven times this season. 

Four players accomplished that feat in Tuesday's game alone.  Marcellous Perez (Jacksonville, N.C.) and Cody Henegar (South Pittsburg, Tenn.) paced the Eagles with six helpers, each.  Sanders and Collin Crane (Knoxville, Tenn.) followed suit with five a piece.

"We told our guys that we were going to move the ball and make the extra pass.  I can't make this an issue enough that they responded to exactly what we wanted them to do.  We expect some slippage, but that was minimal tonight."

Henegar was C-N's third leading scorer with eight points to go with 10 rebounds and those six assists.

"It's a testament to the players.  Our guys utilize the different strategies within our offense to the max. I look at Cody Henegar and what he did was ridiculous.  This score tonight is not indicative of how good Queens is."

The Eagles held the Royals' two leading scorers Antonio Stabler and Brent Evans to a combined five points; they were averaging more the 32 points per game entering the contest.  Sam Johnson grabbed the team high with 14 points.

The Eagles held Queens to a season low 34 percent shooting.  It was just the second time all year the Royals had been held under 40 percent from the field.  The Carson-Newman matchup zone also forced Queens to take a season high 28 threes.  Queens entered the game shooting 25 percent from trey ball land. 

Carson-Newman breaks for 18 days before its next contest, incidentally, a rematch with the Royals.

C-N travels to Charlotte January 5^th for a 2 p.m. game with Queens.  Coverage on the Coca-Cola Eagle Sports Network begins at 1:45 p.m. over the air on 106.3 ESPN Radio The Zone (WPFT-FM, Sevierville) and online at cneagles.com.

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