Carson-Newman Women's Basketball Game Notes
JEFFERSON CITY, Tenn. – Sandwiched around four games at Holt Fieldhouse Carson-Newman travels to Hickory, N.C. to take on Lenoir-Rhyne Saturday afternoon at 2 p.m.
The Lady Eagles (16-7, 10-7 South Atlantic Conference) have lost their last two road games and are just 3-5 as a visiting team in conference contests.
Carson-Newman is coming off of a third win over a ranked team in 2015-16 winning a thriller at Holt Wednesday evening 81-79 in overtime over Anderson (S.C.). Following the first two wins over nationally-ranked foes, the Lady Eagles have turned around and lost on the road each time.
"Obviously the Anderson game picked the spirits back up and got them excited again," Carson-Newman coach Mike Mincey said. "I'm very proud of their effort. They could have dyed down and quit but they didn't and fought back and got a big W in overtime. Anytime you go on the road in our conference it's a big deal. A lot of [L-R's] losses at home have been by single digits. Very athletic team and it's going to take an A-game out of us on the road to get a W."
The Lady Eagles have won at least 10 games in the SAC play for the third-straight season and 12th time in school history just shy of the record mark of four consecutive from 1989-90 to 1992-93 totaling 46 wins in that span.
The 70th all-time meeting between Carson-Newman and Lenoir-Rhyne (8-13, 7-10 SAC) is set for Saturday with the Lady Eagles holding a 43-26 lead and looking for their first season sweep over the Bears since the 2007-08 season, a span of nine seasons, when C-N won 77-66 and 72-65.
In the first meeting this season, Carson-Newman snagged a 68-48 victory outscoring Lenoir-Rhyne 41-20 in the second and third quarters. Kailyn Brooks (Lafayette, Tenn.) scored game-high 20 points, three assists and three rebounds on 8 of 18 shooting. Lenoir-Rhyne's leading scorer, Jasmine Stafford, was the lone Bear in double figures finishing with 11 points on 4 of 9 shooting in the game.
Lenoir-Rhyne is playing just its ninth home game of the year having played 13 road contests at this point in the season. The Bears have won four-straight home contests with the last loss at Shuford Memorial Gymnasium on Jan. 9, a 57-54 setback against Anderson.
The Bears have made the eighth-fewest three-pointers in Division II this season with just 66 made triples. 14 times in 21 games L-R has made three or fewer three-pointers. Conversely Katie Pate's group is the second-best team in the league in defending shots from beyond the arc yielding a percentage of 29 percent.
Stafford is the lone Bear averaging in double figures on the year ranking 20th in the SAC with 11.3 points per game. The guard is shooting just 34 percent from the floor on the year.
Fans can listen to the game on two formats. The Eagle Sports Network's flagship station, 106.3 WPFT-FM, and cneagles.com/live will have coverage beginning at 1:45 p.m. with The Appalachian Electric Cooperative Countdown to Tip-Off.
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