ANDERSON, S.C. – Anderson (10-4, 6-0 South Atlantic Conference) made 15-of-24 three point attempts en route to a come from behind 85-80 win over Carson-Newman (11-3, 4-2 SAC) in a battle of two of the top teams in the league at the Abney Athletic Center Saturday afternoon.
Anderson is tied with Wingate for first in the league, while LMU was tied with C-N for second.
"The credit goes to them for making shots," Carson-Newman head men's basketball coach Chuck Benson said. "I'm not sure I've seen shot making like that ever. And that's with us making 54 percent of our threes."
Carson-Newman closed the first half on a 13-2 run to take a 38-31 lead into the lockerroom. However, Anderson opened the second half on a 12-1 run to tie the game. Neither team led by more than five points during the final 10 minutes of the game.
Cody Henegar (South Pittsburg, Tenn.) gave Carson-Newman a 79-78 lead with 53 seconds left. However, preseason conference player of the year Denzail Jones popped a 25-foot three from the right point to give Anderson a two-point lead that it would not relinquish.
Needing two free throws to tie the game with four seconds left and trailing 81-79, Henegar missed the first and made the second. Anderson then iced the game at the line.
Five different players made threes for Anderson, led by Chandler Hash's seven makes in nine attempts – Hash finished with a game high 25 points. Four of the players who made threes for the Trojans shot at a 60 percent clip or better from beyond the arc.
Carson-Newman stroked 15 of its 24 shots from beyond the arc, a 54 percent clip, but the Eagles went 8-for-15 at the charity stripe. Benson called free throws the difference in the game, and said that he wouldn't have changed a thing defensively against the Trojans.
"They are hard to defend especially when they are making shots," Benson said. "A lot of times we contested shots and they made tough ones. The credit goes to them and their ability to make contested shots. These weren't H-O-R-S-E shots, these were contested shots.
"There's nothing schematically we would have done differently."
Antoine Davis (Rustburg, Va.) and Ish Sanders (Cleveland, Tenn.) tied for the lead for the Eagles with 21 each. Davis was 8-for-10 from the field and 4-of-5 from deep, while Sanders made seven of his 12 shots from the field.
Henegar contributed 19 points, including a career high four threes. Jared Johnson (Springfield, Mass.) followed behind with 15 points.
"Overall we didn't capitalize and finish it out, but I'm still proud of our guys the way they competed. And let's call an ace an ace. We had some guys on that floor that (are freshman) and are playing crucial minutes."
The Eagles return home to face rival and nationally ranked Lincoln Memorial Wednesday night at 8 p.m. at Holt Fieldhouse. Coverage begins at 7:45 p.m. on the Coca-Cola Eagle Sports Network on 106.3 ESPN Radio the Zone (WPFT-FM, Sevierville) and online at cneagles.com.
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