Carson-Newman Women's Basketball Game Notes
JEFFERSON CITY, Tenn. – The Carson-Newman Lady Eagles (16-8, 10-8 South Atlantic Conference) continue their road swing with a journey to the Abney Athletic Center Wednesday night at 6 p.m. for a clash with the Anderson (S.C.) Trojans (19-3, 16-2 SAC).
Carson-Newman is coming off of a 78-51 loss at Wingate where the Bulldogs shot 63 percent from the floor in the second half and 54 percent for the game. It was the highest field goal percentage that the Lady Eagles have allowed this season.
"We are just going to have to get down and play defense," coach Mike Mincey said. "You can't just come out in the first half and play one way and come out 15 minutes later and play completely differently. We are going to have to do a lot better job on the defensive end."
Mincey's squad was very good defensively to begin the year yielding just 61.9 points per game to begin the year 15-3, but over the last six games where Carson-Newman is 1-5, opponents are averaging 79 points per night.
It was once the best defense in the league in terms of scoring defense, but with the six-game swing Carson-Newman has fallen to seventh.
The six-game sequence began on January 28 at Holt Fieldhouse against Wednesday's opponent, Anderson, as the Trojans won the first matchup this season 78-65.
Offensive rebounding was the story of the contest for the Trojans. Anderson racked up 24 offensive rebounds and converted those boards into 23 second chance points as the Trojans outrebounded Carson-Newman 53-35 in the contest.
Despite the deficiency, the Lady Eagles made it a six-point game with 6:31 to play in the game, but could never close the gap any further.
Junior guard Kailyn Brooks (Lafayette, Tenn.) had 13 points and three assists while senior forward Whitney Kyle (Jefferson City, Tenn.) was the only other double figure scorer as she finished with 10 points and seven rebounds.
Anderson enters Wednesday winners of 12 straight games, its longest streak since winning 20 in a row during the 2007-08 season. The Trojans last loss was a 74-60 decision at home on January 3 against Catawba.
Senior guard Sierra Simpson is the reigning Astroturf SAC women's basketball Player of the Week after averaging 16.5 points and 6.5 assists per game this season. Simpson is second in the league in minutes per game averaging 36.3 per night while leading the conference in assists by averaging 4.5 per contest.
Wednesday's meeting is the 14th meeting in the all-time series with Carson-Newman holding onto a 7-6 lead in the series.
The game can be heard on 106.3 WPFT-FM or cneagles.com/live beginning at 5:45 with "The AEC Countdown to Tip-Off" on the Eagle Sports Network.
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