VIDEO: Chuck Benson Interview
NEWBERRY, S.C. – Carson-Newman (10-7, 4-3 South Atlantic Conference) suffered through its worst shooting night of the season in a 63-55 loss at Newberry (9-7, 2-4 SAC) Saturday in Eleazer Arena.
Carson-Newman only made 20-of-58 shots (34.5 percent) for its worst shooting performance since a loss in the SAC title game to Queens (31.2 percent) on March 6, 2022. Carson-Newman only connected on 4-of-26 threes (15.4 percent) and 11-of-23 free throws (47.8). Every number drastically incongruous for a team that ranks in the top two in the SAC in all three categories.
The loss is the fifth straight for Carson-Newman, the longest losing streak C-N has suffered through since February of 2010. This loss did provide hope for C-N head coach Chuck Benson. The Eagles only turned it over seven times, a season low and the fewest in a game since giving it up six times on Jan. 26, 2022 at Lincoln Memorial.
"Newberry is a really strong opponent, they are well coached and play hard and defend," Carson-Newman head men's basketball coach Chuck Benson said. "We had a really distinct plan both defensively and offensively. Our desire was to limit McCollum, I thought we did a pretty good job of that. We wanted to limit their work on the offensive glass, we struggled with that, but at the same time they struggled to stop us and we ended up with more offensive rebounds than them.
"Our guys followed the scout and shot threes. That's exactly what we wanted them to do because Newberry put five guy in the paint. If we played Newberry tomorrow, we'd do the exact same thing. We had guys who work a lot taking good shots, if we did it again, we'd do the exact same thing."
The loss followed an eerily similar script to the Eagles' last contest at Eleazer Arena (a 57-53 loss to Newberry). Carson-Newman got tons of open looks from three that game as well, but just couldn't hit. Carson-Newman is a combined 8-of-53 from three in its last two games at Newberry.
Newberry became just the third team to outrebound Carson-Newman. The Wolves tallied a 42-39 edge on the glass.
"Today could have been a very frustrating thing because there was a level of physicality in this game that I haven't seen," Benson said. "I thought there were a ton of physical defensive responses that hurt us. We have to figure out how to do that better. Our guys followed through on what we asked them to do, we just didn't win. I don't walk out of here feeling like the sky is falling."
Jack Browder (Kingsport, Tenn.) led all scorers with 13 points. He was 5-of-10 from the field. Bryant Thomas (Charlotte, N.C.) added in a double-double for the 11th time in his career with 11 points and 10 boards.
Andrew Robinson paced Newberry with 13 points and five boards. Quandaveon McCollum had 10 points.
Carson-Newman limited Newberry to 32 percent shooting after halftime. The solid defensive performance enabled Carson-Newman to make a run at a deficit. The Wolves led by 11 following a 13-2 run spanning the halftime break and a five-minute Carson-Newman scoring drought.
The Eagles got most of that back with a 9-0 run headlined by a Browder three and and-one. C-N tied it on four occasions in the second half, but never could break through.
The Wolves are the first team to collect a wire-to-wire win on C-N this season. Carson-Newman had led in every other game it played this year.
Carson-Newman returns home Wednesday to take on Limestone at 7:30 p.m. Coverage on the Eagle Sports Network starts at 7:15 with the AEC Countdown to Tipoff on Mountain Talk 106.3 (WPFT-FM, Sevierville) and online at cneagles.com/live.
