VIDEO: Chuck Benson Interview
HARTSVILLE, S.C. – Carson-Newman (18-10, 15-9 SAC) head men's basketball coach Chuck Benson became the fourth member of C-N's 200-win club as C-N used a late second-half surge to put away Coker (5-23, 5-19 SAC) Saturday at the DeLoach Center.
"This isn't a secret, I grew up 30 minutes down the road and came here to watch games in the 70s and 80s," Benson said. "There were two things I had dreams of, and that was to coach at Tennessee and to be the head coach at Carson-Newman. I've gotten to do both of them. I'm very thankful and very humble.
"The longer I do this, the more I understand what a collective effort this is. People make a big deal of the wins and losses, but coaches know it's about the players, both current and former, staff members and our administration. It's been a dream for me here and I've got a lot left in me. I just want to say thank you to all the people that allow me to be in this position to do what I love"
Benson joins Dale Clayton, Gene Mehaffey and Dick Campbell as the fourth Carson-Newman coach to make it to 200 wins at C-N.
Carson-Newman got Benson there with its characteristic defense. Carson-Newman had led wire-to-wire before Coker made nine of its first 14 shots to start the second half and grab a lead, 53-50, off a trio of Zach Measmer free throws with 10:19 to play. The freebies capped a 13-3 Coker run.
However, Carson-Newman hunkered down and responded. Coker would just made two of its next 13 shots while the Eagles cranked through a 20-5 run to stretch the lead out to double-digits.
A Ren Dyer (Weaverville, N.C.) fast break dunk and am EJ Bush (Oak Ridge, Tenn.) turnaround J set the Eagles up 73-60 with 57 seconds left.
"We knew after watching their last game when they beat Newberry here," Benson said. "I knew Coker had a lot of fight left in them with it being their last game of the year and their senior day. We knew we had a major task on our hands. We learned our lesson by letting Tusculum beat us twice. We weren't going to let LMU beat us twice. I thought we followed through at a high level on what we were trying to do with our scout and we didn't lose the plot while staying on task. That's a credit to our guys."
Carson-Newman's two three-year seniors carried the water for the Eagles on the day.
Bush finished with a game-high 19 and came within a rebound of his ninth career double-double. Bush was 6-of-10 from the floor. He needs 15 more points to get to 1,000 in his Carson-Newman career.
Meanwhile, Tripp Davis (Nashville, Tenn.) scored 17 while snagng seven boards. He sits nine points away from 1,000 for his C-N career.
"I'm not surprised," Benson said. "Those guys wanted to finish the regular season strong and they certainly did. Tripp and EJ want to be tuned up and ready for the third portion of the season. They're such critical pieces to what we do on both ends of the floor. Their leadership and demonstration today was critical to what we accomplished."
Dyer rounded out the Eagles' trio of double-digit scorers. He had 14 on 5-of-9 shooting, including 2-of-4 from deep.
Luke Brenegan (Greenville, S.C.) stuffed the stat sheet with eight points, five boards and six assists.
Demar Anderson paced four Coker double-digit scorers with 17 points. Jordan Jones chipped in 11 on 5-of-12 shooting, while Ryan Carfley and Williams Oneyodi each had 10.
Coker finished the game shooting 41.8 percent from the field compared to C-N's 44.6 percent effort.
Carson-Newman closes out the regular season on a two-game road winning streak.
With the win, Carson-Newman clinches the five seed in the SAC tournament. The Eagles will play Wingate at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday at Cuddy Arena. The game will be available on the Eagle Sports Network starting with the AEC Countdown to Tipoff online at cneagles.com/live.
