Chuck Benson By The Slice Coker Preview

C-N Game Notes

The Cobras toppled a then unbeaten and 16^th-ranked Carson-Newman club 68-59 in Hartsville, S.C. back in the Eagles' second game of conference play.

"We got ambushed down there," Benson said. "This time around I'm hoping that our guys have a good feel for what to expect when they come in our gym. They're a veteran club that can play both inside and outside. I know we'll learn from it and be extra motivated Saturday." 

Carson-Newman also has motivation because of how the South Atlantic Conference's standings have shaken out at the year's midpoint. 

The Eagles are in a four-way tie for second with Newberry, Wingate and Lenoir-Rhyne.  Coker sits a game back in a three-way tie for sixth with Anderson and Queens.  Lincoln Memorial leads the league, but has just a two-game lead on the last team (the eighth place team) to get in the conference tournament.  Last season, there was an 11-game separation between the first place team and the eighth place team. 

Coker has won back-to-back games, but the Cobras haven't strung together three consecutive victories since beating Erskine, Barton and North Greenville to begin February of 2013. 

Julian Nelson and Larry Felder continue to lead the Cobras.  Nelson scores 16.3 a game, while Felder drops 13.2 a contest off the bench.  Felder's 74.3 field goal percentage leads the SAC and is second in the nation.  The 6-2 guard trails only Jake Thelen of Bellarmine nationally – he sinks 79.6 percent of his shots.

"Nelson and Felder are very deliberate and consistent," Benson said. "That knowledge and the experience of playing them one time and learning some of their philosophies hopefully goes a long way."

The Eagles' Ish Sanders (Cleveland, Tenn.) sits on the cusp of a couple milestones. The senior needs four points to break into the South Atlantic Conference's top 10 for most points in a career.  Sanders can tie Roman Davis of Lenoir-Rhyne for 10^th on the list with 1,619 point.  Sanders needs 29 points to catch ninth place Heigi Magnussen of Catawba and his 1,644 career points. 

In addition, Sanders needs 11 more triples to pass Tusculum's Kyle Moore as the SAC's all-time leader in made threes.  Sanders has 296 for his career, Moore buried 306 for the Pioneers (in an absurd three years).

Antoine Davis (Rustburg, Va.) leads the Eagles in scoring at 20.6 per game. Both he and Sanders have a trio of 20-point games since the Eagles' return from Christmas break. 

Regardless, Benson looks for that duo and the rest of the team to continue the hot shooting in 2014, in stark apposition to the last time the Eagle's and Cobras faced off. 

"We did not shoot the ball well at their place," Benson said. "It's a small, tight gym that's seen its fair share of wins for Coker. We went in there and had a good shootaround, but got to gametime and just couldn't make shots there."

Tipoff Saturday is set for 4 p.m.  Pregame on the Eagle Sports Network starts at 3:45 p.m. on 106.3 ESPN Radio The Zone (WPFT-FM, Sevierville) and online at cneagles.com/live.