JEFFERSON CITY, Tenn. – Facing a tight turnaround against an unfamiliar and unbeaten foe, Carson-Newman (10-5, 9-5 South Atlantic Conference) steps out of conference play Monday evening at 6:30 to challenge Benedict (3-0, 0-0 Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference) in Holt Fieldhouse.
The meeting will be the first ever between the Eagles and Tigers. This is Carson-Newman's second matchup with a member of the SIAC with Chuck Benson as head coach.
"Our staff has gotten the information we need to prepare quickly," Benson said. "We need this. We've lost out on games with Newberry, Limestone and Coker. They're undefeated and arguably the number one team in the SIAC. We needed a challenge and they were the best we could get."
The Eagles downed Fort Valley State 95-67 on Dec. 8, 2018. Prior to that the Eagles last played a member of the SIAC in the 1998-99 season when the Eagles clobbered Kentucky State 85-57. Carson-Newman is 11-3 all-time against the league.
That figure only includes one meeting with Kentucky State, though. The Thorobreds are 22-9 all-time against C-N, but didn't join the SIAC until 1997.
Carson-Newman has won five straight and is unbeaten in the month of February.
Carson-Newman has the league's top scoring defense - averaging 65.7 points allowed per game, a figure that ranks 20th nationally. Carson-Newman boasts the league's best field goal percentage defense - opponents shoot 39.6 percent from the field, a figure that also is seventh nationally. Carson-Newman has held seven of its last 11 foes to below 40 percent shooting. Tusculum and Catawba are the only teams to shoot better than 45 percent from the field on the Eagles.
If one were to take into account that some teams don't have large sample sizes of games, Carson-Newman's defense looks even more impressive. The Eagles trail only Colorado School of Mines and Grand Valley State in defensive field goal percentage among teams nationally that have played 10 or more games.
Part of the Eagles defensive standing comes from shot blocking. Carson-Newman leads the SAC and ranks 11th nationally with 4.1 blocks per game. If the season were to end today, Carson-Newman would set a new school record for average shots blocked per contest. Bryant Thomas has swatted 28 shots this year to rank second in the country.
Benedict head coach Artis Maddox has an NAIA National Championship under his belt. An assistant coach and graduate of Mountain State University, With Maddox on the basketball staff, the Cougars had an overall record of 277-38. During his tenure as an assistant at MSU, Coach Maddox won nine consecutive conference regular season titles, seven conference tournament championships, and advanced to the national tournament every season, making it to four semifinals and three championship games in nine seasons.
Maddox helped recruit and coach seven first-team All-Americans, four second-team All-Americans, five third-team All-Americans, eight honorable mention All-Americans and one National Player of the Year.
The Tigers have a 78-74 win over common opponent Bluefield State, a team the Eagles downed 70-59.
Carson-Newman has had four different players (Luke Brenegan, Ren Dyer, Bryant Thomas and Tripp Davis) score more than 20 points in the last two games. The year, Carson-Newman had six different players top the 20-point threshold.
Tipoff between the Eagles and Tigers is set for 6:30 p.m. Monday, Coverage on the Eagle Sports Network starts at 6:15 with the AEC Countdown to Tipoff on The Mountain 106.3 (WPFT-FM, Sevierville) and online at cneagles.com/live.
