VIDEO: Chuck Benson Interview
VIDEO: Highlights
VIDEO: Bryant Thomas Interview
VIDEO: Luke Brenegan Interview
JEFFERSON CITY, Tenn. – Carson-Newman (14-7, 11-6 South Atlantic Conference) swatted 10 Newberry (9-9, 9-7 SAC) shots and limited the Wolves to 5-of-22 shooting after halftime in order to overcome a nine-point second half deficit and prevail 55-47 in a defensive war Saturday afternoon in Holt Fieldhouse.
"I thought our student section gave us an edge," Carson-Newman head men's basketball coach Chuck Benson said. "We had some people in here and it had an energy to it. That helped us defensively. We knew Newberry is legit. This very well may be the best defensive performance we've had this season."
Carson-Newman produced the third double-digit shot-blocking effort in school history on a night where Bryant Thomas (Charlotte, N.C.) turned in a five-block day to become the school's career leader for rejections with 113.
"It's a crazy feeling," Thomas said. "I always knew I had a knack for blocking shots, this is just the culmination of that and I'm grateful for my teammates."
Thomas moved past Andy Tipton (2004-09) into sole possession of first on the all-time list with a season and change to go in his career.
"I would bet my home and a year's salary that if Bryant Thomas is playing at Carson-Newman, he would block at least one more shot," Carson-Newman head men's basketball coach Chuck Benson said. "He is elite. I love coaching him and he does what he does like nobody else."
Tyler Bowens (Greenville, S.C.) and Joshuwa Butts (Lilburn, Ga.) each rejected two shots, while Tripp Davis (Nashville, Tenn.) got his seventh career block in his 119th career game.
The shot-stopping helped limit Newberry to a season-low 30.9 percent shooting effort and just 5-of-22 shooting after halftime. The Wolves become the fourth team this season that Carson-Newman has held below 36 percent shooting.
"Bryant is Bryant, and just a unique defender," Benson said. "Tyler and Josh helped send a message too. It was more than just the rim protection. Our guys were very mindful of personnel and helped impact Ford, Brown and McCollum. Those are three of the best players in this league, overall they were locked in on personnel and in particular the second half, they set a standard for defensive performance."
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Newberry extended a four-point halftime lead out to nine, 34-25, with 16:09 to play in the second half following a Quandaveon McCollum layup. The Wolves wouldn't score again for five minutes.
In the interim, C-N used a 10-0 run to grab the lead after a John Zhao (Sevierville, Tenn.) three and two Davis free throws with 12:25 to play. That put C-N up 35-34. The teams swapped leads after a Sherman Robinson free throw and a TJ Brown jumper sandwiched a Thomas layup, but C-N rattled off the next six, capped by a Luke Brenegna (Greenville, Tenn.) triple that gave C-N a 43-37 lead it wouldn't come close to losing.
In spite of not making a shot over the final 3:54, C-N stiff-armed the Wolves down the stretch with two possessions that were a minute long thanks to offensive rebounding.
"That second tier," Benson said. "Tyler, Josh and Zhao just helped spark it by getting stops and getting baskets. Over and over and over again, that's a recipe for winning. Credit to our players, they followed through on what we emphasized."
Brenegan led C-N with 14 points off the bench. He was 4-of-10 from the field and 2-of-8 from three. Davis followed with 11 on 4-of-9 shooting. Thomas rounded out the Eagles' double-digit scorers with a stat-sheet stuffing night with 10 points, seven boards, five blocks, two assists and a steal.
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Meanwhile, the Eagles' hampered the Wolves' big threes efficiency. Leading scorer Quandaveon McCollum only scored four points on 2-of-6 shooting in 19 foul-plagued minutes. Marcus Ford, who was averaging five made threes per game over the last five contests, went 0-for-4 from distance and finished with four points on 2-of-10 shooting.
TJ Brown did get going to the tune of 19 points, but needed 16 shots to get there. He was 6-of-16 from the field.
Sherman Robinson tripled his season average with 13 off the bench.
Carson-Newman turned it over 10 times in the first half, but just four after halftime.
The Wolves led 27-23 at the halftime break. At that mark, they had nine second chance points and 12 points off turnovers to account for 78 percent of their first half scoring.
After the 16-minute mark in the second half, the Eagles only allowed four second-chance points and no points off turnovers.
The Eagles forced nine turnovers after halftime and ended the game plus five on the glass.
Carson-Newman won the game by only making 19 field goals on 49 shot attempts (38.8 percent). It marks the fourth time with Chuck Benson as head coach that the Eagles have won a game with fewer than 20 made field goals. The previous three games were all against John Lentz-coached Lenoir-Rhyne teams.
Carson-Newman stays at home Wednesday to play Tusculum. Tipoff with the Pioneers is slated for 7:30 p.m. Coverage on the Eagle Sports Network begins at 7:15 with the AEC Countdown to Tipoff on Mountain Sports 106.3 (WPFT-FM, Sevierville) and online at cneagles.com/live.
