C-N Women's Basketball Game Notes
JEFFERSON CITY, Tenn. – With nonconference action in the rearview mirror, Carson-Newman turns its focus to 20 straight South Atlantic Conference contests to close out the season beginning with Queens (N.C.) Saturday at 2 p.m. inside of Holt Fieldhouse.
"I think we have a talented group," Carson-Newman coach Mike Mincey said. "I think they are disappointed with how we started the year at 4-4 and how played at North Georgia. I think they are going to come out excited to play tomorrow to get into conference play and try to stay at the top for as long as we can."
Carson-Newman has won the last four meetings against Queens with the series beginning in 2014 when the Royals won the first two affairs between the two programs.
Three of the four wins during C-N's streak have come by at least 17 points including the most recent, a 73-53 victory for the Lady Eagles on Jan. 30 at Holt Fieldhouse. Queens scored just 22 points in the second half as C-N handed out 26 assists and Kailyn Brooks scored in double figures for the 10th straight game with 13 points and eight helpers.
Queens was 5-22 with a 3-19 mark in league action and return 10 upperclassmen to this year's roster to a team picked 11th in the preseason SAC coaches' poll.
Since joining the SAC prior to the 2014-15 season, Queens has an overall record of 11-51 and a league record of 7-40. The Royals have a road record of 4-22 during that span and have not won more than three games away from home since the 2010-11 season.
The Royals dropped their first seven outings of the season before coming away with a 50-45 victory at Brevard on Dec. 7. The team has lost games this season by an average of 15 points per game, the 14th worst margin in the country.
This season Queens ranks 279th in the nation in field-goal percentage defense allowing opponents to shoot 43.2 percent from the floor and 279th nationally by averaging just 23 rebounds per night.
Offensively the Royals are last in the conference in points per night posting 51.3 per outing while committing 22.5 turnovers per game, the third-most in Division II.
"When we play at our best it's going to be an up-tempo game" Mincey said. "We won at Newberry and had the potential to win at North Georgia with a lower number of shot attempts but anytime we play Queens we know that we want to speed the game up. Offensively, we have to score and that can take them out of their game plan and maybe force them to speed up trying to catch up."
CoSIDA Academic All-District McKell Oliverio expects to lead the group with 11.7 points per night in 2015-16 with Carmen Richardson's 12.1 points per night in 25 games. Oliverio is registering 35 minutes per night, the third-most in the SAC this season while leading the team in scoring at 12.4 points per game and has scored in double figures in all but two games this year.
Sarah Henson, a transfer from Lenoir-Rhyne, is the only other double-digit scorer averaging 10.8 points per game and 4.8 rebounds per evening.
The Eagle Sports Network will provide the broadcast coverage beginning with "The Appalachian Electric Cooperative Countdown to Tip-Off". Mountain Country 106.3 WPFT-FM in the local area has the radio broadcast while fans with internet connectivity can find a video and an audio stream on cneagles.com/live free of charge.
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