NEWBERRY, S.C. – Junior guard Kailyn Brooks (Lafayette, Tenn.) led all scorers with a career-high 25 points only to see Newberry earn a 77-69 victory Sunday afternoon at Eleazer Arena.
The Wolves (10-8, 9-3 South Atlantic Conference) won both regular season meetings this season sweeping the season series against the Lady Eagles (13-5, 7-5 SAC) for the first time since the 2010-11 campaign.
"You have to give credit to Newberry," Carson-Newman coach Mike Mincey said. "They shot almost 60 percent in the first half. They hit six threes in the first half and [Samantha] Creed didn't miss a shot. She's a great player and she made shots. We struggled a little bit offensively and we were still down seven going into the break and felt like we had an opportunity to still be in the game."
Carson-Newman made five straight buckets to take a 13-10 lead in the opening quarter but followed that stretch with a 3:16 scoring drought to see Newberry gain a 16-13 advantage after 10 minutes of play.
The Lady Eagles tied the score at 19 in the second stanza with 8:33 to play in the half. Newberry proceeded to score nine of the next 11 points in the following three minutes to get a 28-21 advantage. The Wolves went 9-for-13 from the floor in the second quarter to push their halftime lead to 38-31.
Newberry shot 59 percent in the first half compared to a 52-percent clip from Carson-Newman. Brooks went 6-for-7 from the floor and scored 14 points. Newberry's Samantha Creed converted all five of her shot attempts in scoring 14 points.
Mincey's team cut the deficit to six points with under 30 seconds to play in the third quarter. Nicola Handreck drilled a step-back three-pointer from the left wing in the waning seconds to push the lead to nine at 60-51 heading into the final frame.
The closest the visiting team would get the rest of the way was five points at 72-67 with 55 seconds remaining. Carson-Newman missed 12 of its final 14 field-goal attempts in the game as Newberry, despite going 3-for-12 from the floor in the fourth quarter, went 10-for-14 at the free-throw line to put the game on ice.
In the second half, the Lady Eagles went 12-for-41 from the floor and just 3-for-19 from long range. In the game C-N shot 38 percent, the seventh time this year shooting below 40 percent with a 2-5 record in such games.
Senior guard Jai Jai McLaughlin (Knoxville, Tenn.) tallied 10 points and a game-high 12 rebounds for her sixth double-double of her career.
Senior forward Taylor Peterson (Mount Juliet, Tenn.) tossed in 14 points on 7 of 14 shooting from the floor.
Creed scored five points in the second half, all at the foul line, to finish with 19 in the contest. Handreck finished with 15 points, seven assists and six rebounds. Jaya Schultz and Hannah Lepaio chipped in 13 and 10 points respectively.
Carson-Newman returns to Holt Fieldhouse to begin a stretch of four out of five games at the friendly confines beginning Wednesday at 6 p.m. against Lincoln Memorial. The Appalachian Electric Cooperative Countdown to Tip-Off begins the broadcast coverage at 5:45 p.m. on 106.3 WPFT-FM and cneagles.com/live on the Eagle Sports Network.
- CN -