Carson-Newman Women's Basketball Game Notes
JEFFERSON CITY, Tenn. – Carson-Newman begins South Atlantic Conference action Tuesday evening at 6 p.m. as Lincoln Memorial travels to Holt Fieldhouse for the 82nd all-time meeting between the two schools.
"The game is huge," Carson-Newman coach Mike Mincey said. "It's the first conference game of the year and even more important it's at home. If you want to be in the top four and get back to Furman, it's a matter of winning games at home. LMU is off to a 4-0 start and I know they are going to be coming in here riding a lot of positivity. Are we going to match their physicality and mentality? I think we will. We typically do at home."
The all-time series sees Carson-Newman holding a 51-30 lead while winning two of the last three after a three-game winning streak from Lincoln Memorial.
The Lady Eagles and Railsplitters open the conference for the second straight season as LMU picked up a 56-54 victory at Tex Turner Arena. C-N led by two points with 44 seconds to play only to see Josey Harding make a jumper, miss a free throw on an and-one attempt and Jasmine Kelly make a layup with 0.8 seconds on the clock.
Carson-Newman is 10-6 in SAC openers since 2000 and is looking to avoid a losing streak in such games for just the second time. From 2002-04, the Lady Eagles lost three straight conference lid-lifters.
LMU was picked fifth in the preseason coaches' poll after a fifth-place finish last season tallying its best record since 2003-04 going 17-12 (13-9) and advanced to the SAC Championships semifinals for the first time in school history.
The 'Splitters have won the first four games of the 2016-17 season to begin 4-0 for the first time since the 1991-92 season when they started 7-0. With a victory, LMU would be 5-0 for just the third time since 1940-41.
LMU starts the year with seven of its first nine contests at home. In its only road contest this year, the Railsplitters shot 38 percent and went 24-for-31 at the free-throw line to top Cumberlands (Ky.) 69-52.
Interior play is once again a strong suit for the Railsplitters ranking second in the conference in rebound margin at 9.7 and 34th nationally with 47.3 boards per night.
Lincoln Memorial has made just 4.7 three-pointers per game this season, 211th in the country while converting just 32 percent of those triple chances, 142nd nationally.
Senior Megan Pittman, the conference's leader in rebounds with 10 per night last year, was named preseason first-team All-SAC after leading the LMU in six stat categories. Pittman is the team's leading scorer averaging 11.5 points per night to rank 21st in the conference on the year.
The roster has been extremely balanced to this point in the year as just two players, Pittman and Josey Harding, are averaging more than 20 minutes per night. Nine athletes are posting 10 minutes per evening on the year.
The game will be broadcast on Mountain Country 106.3 WPFT-FM beginning 15 minutes prior to tip-off with "The Appalachian Electric Cooperative Countdown to Tip-Off" on the Eagle Sports Network and on cneagles.com/live. Local fans can catch the game on MyVLT as WVLT-TV will provide the video broadcast.
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