JEFFERSON CITY, Tenn. – Carson-Newman (15-9, 12-8 South Atlantic Conference) makes its penultimate road trip of the year with a short trek into the mountains to take on Mars Hill (5-17, 5-14 SAC) Wednesday at 7:30 p.m. in Burt Stanford Arena.
Mars Hill snapped a 12-game losing streak on Saturday with an 88-74 win over Coker, but dropped an 80-55 decision at Newberry Monday night.
The Lions have the highest-scoring true freshman in the South Atlantic Conference. Kadyn Dawkins averages 14.9 points per game. Dawkins has seven games with at least 23 points under his belt, but has been kept to four in back-to-back games against Lincoln Memorial and Coker. He had 15 on 3-of-11 shooting in the first meeting against Carson-Newman.
"Dawkins has had a spectacular rookie season and we anticipate that he will finish the season as strong as he has been performing throughout the year," Carson-Newman head men's basketball coach Chuck Benson said. "However, he's not the only one. They have multiple threats. Despite the fact that they have struggled to win games, they are still competing hard and there's no lack off fight. There's no question this will be a challenge, especially there at Mars Hill."
Mars Hill has struggled to stop teams from scoring. The Lions allow 87.9 points per game, second worst in the league and fourth worst in the country. Opponent's shoot 48 percent frm the field against the Lions, a figure that is in the bottom 10 of the country.
The Lions are the SAC's second most-prolific shot-blocking team behind Carson-Newman. They average four blocks per game. Isayah Johnson has 26 on the year. Isaiah Jones has 22.
The Eagles are in fifth in the SAC standings with four games left to play in the regular season. Wingate has a two-game lead for fourth place in the league standings. Those teams split the regular season meetings. The Bulldogs have the best chance to win the tiebreak between the two teams with a win over third-place Tusculum in hand.
"We take things one day at a time, one practice at a time, one prep at a time," Benson said. "We just want to be present and in the moment. Even when you take the focus off the postseason, this is such a good group of guys, we want to maximize the opportunities we have together."
Bryant Thomas is once again among the best in the nation at rejecting shots. He is 12th nationally with 51 blocks and 15th in the country with 2.22 re-directs per game. Thomas is the league leader in both categories.
Carson-Newman has the country's 21st best shot-blocking team with 100 total rejections. The Eagles lead the league for the category. Carson-Newman's 10-rejection day against Newberry is one of 32 double-digit rejection days in Division II this year.
Tripp Davis is fifth in the country in total steals with 57 and sixth in steals per game with 2.59. Davis is in the top 15 for steals in a single season at Carson-Newman. Hie sits in a tie with Charles Clark for the sixth most in a single-season in program history. Davis has 147 steals for his career, He moved past Braun Dabbs with a six-steal day against Wingate and now has sole possession of sixth on the career steal chart. He needs one more to catch Andrew Johnson (2005-09) for fifth and his 148 steals.
Davis has 13 steals in his last two games against Mars Hill. He tied Kyle Gribble's school record with seven in the meeting in Stanford Arena last year and had six in Holt on Dec. 15.
Carson-Newman iis looking for a fourth straight win over Mars Hill. The Eagles past three wins have all been by double-digits and by an average of 24.67 points per game. Carson-Newman has shot at least 55 percent from the field in five of the last six halves of basketball against the Lions.
Tipoff between the Eagles and Lions is set for 7:30 p.m. Wednesday. Coverage on the Eagle Sports Network starts at 7:15 with the AEC Countdown to Tipoff on Mountain Sports 106.3 (WPFT-FM, Sevierville) and online at cneagles.com/live.
