Chuck Benson postgame interview

Jared Johnson postgame interview

JEFFERSON CITY, Tenn. – Carson-Newman (11-5, 8-4 SAC) used a wire-to-wire 98-89 victory over Newberry (12-4, 8-4 SAC) to move back into a tie for second place in the league standings Saturday afternoon at Holt Fieldhouse. 

The win for the Eagles is their third in a row for the Wolves and it snapped a string of four straight wins for Newberry.

Jared Johnson (Springfield, Mass.) pumped in a career high 27 points, which included career tallies from the free throw line for makes (10) and attempts (12).  Johnson's previous mark for points came in the fifth game of his freshman season against Belmont Abbey when he scored 24 in a 93-62 loss to the Crusaders.   

"Jared Johnson takes this so very seriously," Carson-Newman head coach Chuck Benson said. "I'm so very happy he had a game like this against this particular opponent because Newberry has a way of rattling opponents, especially guards.  For him to have this kind of night against the Wolves, I'm just thrilled."

Johnson also added six assists and seven boards for the game.  Coming into the contest, Johnson had scored 24 points lifetime against the Wolves and had netted only 10 assists and 11 rebounds. 

The Eagles jumped out to a 53-42 halftime lead on the heels of a 14-4 run to close the opening frame.  The Wolves cut the Eagles lead to one, 39-38 with 3:57 left in the half on a Vincent Hicklin layup. 

However, C-N would hold Newberry without a field goal the rest of the half as Ish Sanders (Cleveland, Tenn.) canned a three from the right wing with 14 seconds left to give the Eagles their largest lead of the opening frame. 

Carson-Newman would push its advantage to 18 with 13:31 left in the contest following a Josh Rogers (Bristol, United Kingdom) jumper from the short corner on the left baseline. 

Newberry trailed by double figures until the four-minute mark on another Hicklin layin.  The Wolves used a 7-0 run to cut the deficit to four with 98 seconds left on an high-arcing three from Mitch Riggs. 

However, Johnson and Sanders hit seven of eight free throws in the final 90 seconds to ice the win for the Eagles. 

"We wanted to try to replicate the way we attacked the rim like we did here last year," Benson said. "We tried to have more of a balance going inside and outside, especially this calendar year."

As such, the Eagles shot 56.3 percent from the field.  Only 38 percent of the Eagles' shots came from beyond the arc and they still connected on 45.8 percent of those triples taken. 

Newberry came into the contest featured prominently in the national rankings.  The Wolves had the nation's second best scoring offense; the Eagles held them seven points under it while forcing the Wolves under 90 points for the first time in five games. 

Secondly, the Wolves came into the contest second in the nation in steals at 11.7 a contest.  The Eagles only coughed it up to them seven times on steals (the third lowest total this year for Newberry).  C-N had 23 assists, the most the Wolves had allowed this year and the Eagles 14 turnovers were the fewest against Newberry this year. 

"The way Newberry plays they'll extend and pressure you," Benson said. "For them to only have seven steals tonight, we tried to pass the ball and attack the rim and our guys executed that plan of attack pretty well."

Sanders followed Johnson with 25 points on nine-of-17 shooting.  The night moves him into eight place on the South Atlantic Conference's all-time scoring list with 1,672 career points.  He passes Keith Baxley of Mars Hill. 

Antoine Davis (Rustburg, Va.) contributed 16 points and nine boards.  He connected on six-of-10 shots.  Sawyer Williams (Owenton, Ky.) went back-to-back games breaking into double figures with a 10-point effort.  He was a perfect four-for-four from the field and two-for-two at the stripe. 

The Wolves had four players who all had at least 16 points.  Dondray Walker led the way with 18 after canning his first four three pointers.  Xavier Holmes, Demarkus Smith and Hicklin each had 16. 

The Eagles hit the road for back-to-back contests away from Mossy Creek with a Wednesday game at Anderson.  Tipoff Wednesday with the Trojans is set for 8 p.m.  Pregame coverage begins at approximately 7:45 on the Eagle Sports Network on 106.3 ESPN Radio The Zone (WPFT-FM, Sevierville) and online at cneagles.com/live.