C-N Women's Basketball Game Notes
JEFFERSON CITY, Tenn. – Carson-Newman seeks its first win on the road over a top-10 team since 2008 when the Lady Eagles drive to No. 6 Lincoln Memorial for a 6 p.m. tip-off at Tex Turner Arena Wednesday night for a battle between teams ranked one and two in the South Atlantic Conference.
Lincoln Memorial (17-0, 12-0) is the top-ranked team in the region and one of four remaining undefeated teams while Carson-Newman (12-6, 9-3) is riding the second-longest winning streak in the league at four games and is in a four-way tie for second place in the SAC.
"You don't want to make it bigger than it already is," Carson-Newman coach Mike Mincey said. "It's pitting two good teams against each other. We have worked hard over these last four games to get what we wanted. We knew they were going to be potentially undefeated and No. 1 in our league. We wanted to be at least tied for second. If you make it too big then you are going to play stressed and put too much pressure on yourself.
"You have to look at it as just another game which I'm sure they are going to do as well. A little more pressure on them. We were 16-0 at one time. You can feel that pressure wanting to continue. They have won some close games and overtime games so give them a lot of credit. They deserve to be undefeated right now since they have won games down the stretch. We are going to have to play a really good game to get a W at their place."
The Lady Eagles boast the top scoring offense in the SAC averaging 81.9 points per night while leading the league in field-goal percentage at 44.3, assists per game at 17.9 and turnovers per night at 13.9.
Sophomore Mika Wester (Newport, Tenn.) is the team's leader in scoring averaging 18.8 points per game and is the reigning SAC Player of the Week. The Western Carolina transfer has recorded nine games with at least 20 points matching the most in a single season by a C-N player over the last 15 years. Wester has scored in double figures in 17 consecutive games, matching the longest streak over the last 15 years.
Senior guard Kailyn Brooks (Lafayette, Tenn.) is 16th in the nation in assist-to-turnover ratio at 2.55 on the year while ranking third in the league in assists at 4.1 per night. Her 48 made three-pointers in 2016-17 rank 42nd in the country and second in the league.
Wednesday is the 83rd all-time meeting between the two programs with C-N holding a 51-31 lead in the series. The 'Splitters are 5-3 since the 2013 campaign.
The first meeting this season saw LMU escape Holt Fieldhouse with a 102-99 overtime win that featured 11 ties and four lead changes. The Railsplitters became the first team to score at least 100 points in a game against C-N since Feb. 9, 2008 when Mars Hill topped the Lady Eagles 100-69.
Shea Coker led a quartet of LMU players in double figures with 25 points. Josey Harding had 16 re-bounds and tallied a SAC-record 27 rebounds in 40 minutes of action.
Carson-Newman has lost four straight in Harrogate with two games in overtime and one game decided by one possession in that span. The last road win for C-N in the series came on Jan. 25, 2012, Mincey's first year, a 74-72 victory.
C-N is 6-2 against ranked teams in Mincey's six seasons as the head man with the last victory over a top-10 team coming on Nov. 21, 2015, a 70-68 triumph at home over sixth-ranked Columbus State.
The last time the Lady Eagles earned a road win over a top-10 team was on Dec. 12, 2008 when C-N upset No. 8 Clayton State 65-52.
Lincoln Memorial is off to the best start in the history of the conference with 12 straight wins to begin the year in league action. Overall, the 'Splitters are one of four remaining undefeated teams in Division II and one of 14 teams among the three NCAA divisions.
LMU ranks behind C-N in scoring offense posting 79.8 points per game, 15th in the nation. The Rail-splitters are the second-most efficient team in the country in three-point percentage at 40.5 percent. Overall, they shoot the ball at a 41.1 percent clip from the field, seventh in the league.
The 'Splitters are sixth in the nation and tops in the SAC in rebounds per game at 46 and seventh in the nation in offensive rebounds per night at 18. The team's field-goal percentage defense ranks fourth in the conference at 37 percent.
Lincoln Memorial leads the league in free throws made at 293, free throws attempted at 389 and free-throw percentage as a team at 75.3.
Megan Pittman is the team's leading scorer at 15.1 points per game while posting eight double-doubles on the year, 28th in the nation. Harding is ninth in America averaging 11.2 boards per night.
The game will be broadcast on the Eagle Sports Network beginning at 5:45 p.m. with "The Appalachian Electric Cooperative Countdown to Tip-Off" on Mountain Country 106.3 WPFT-FM and cneagles.com/live. Locally, the game will be aired on MyVLT-TV through television subscriptions.
