C-N Women's Basketball Game Notes
JEFFERSON CITY, Tenn. – The South Atlantic Conference Women's Basketball Championships begin Wednesday evening at 6 p.m. inside of Holt Fieldhouse as fourth-seeded Carson-Newman hosts No. 5 seed Newberry as the Wolves are riding a seven-game winning streak.
"The thing I like about team is it's mid-January for us," Carson-Newman coach Mike Mincey said. "They enjoy playing basketball. They enjoy the scouting reports and preparing for games. They enjoy playing with each other and I enjoy coaching them. We don't want to see the year come to an end so we are going to be completely dialed in and focused on Newberry."
The Lady Eagles lead the all-time series 30-21 with wins in each meeting this season. Wednesday's contest is a rematch of a 2016 qurarterfinal when second-seeded Newberry won 85-74 at Eleazer Arena.
C-N and Newberry have met four times in the SAC Women's Basketball Championship with Newberry being the higher seed in each contest and winning all four meetings. The two programs have met in each round. In 2007 the two sides met for the title with Newberry winning a 3/4 match-up. The 2010 semifinal saw second-seeded Newberry defeat third-seeded C-N. The most recent meeting in postseason play came on March 6, 2013 when the Wolves won 69-58 in the quarterfinals
Coach Mincey's group is looking to beat a team for the third time in a year for the first time since trumping Wingate a trio of times in 2009-10 winning a conference opening round game 70-66.
A win Wednesday night would secure the 18th 20-win season in the history of the program and the first since going 24-7 during an NCAA Playoff run in 2009-10, a span of seven seasons.
C-N is 22-25 all-time in the SAC Women's Basketball Championships with one title in 2005 and five championship game appearances in 1995, 1998, 1999, 2005 and 2007. The Lady Eagles are one of four teams along with Lenoir-Rhyne, Catawba and Wingate to participate in each SAC Tournament since the first season in 1992.
This season is the seventh time that the Lady Eagles enter the championship as the No. 4 seed going 4-2 in the first six. C-N has won three straight times as the four seed with the last loss coming on Feb. 26, 2002 losing to Lenoir-Rhyne 85-76.
Carson-Newman has hosted a quarterfinal matchup 15 times winning 13 games including eight straight dating back to the 2002 setback to L-R. The only other loss came on Feb. 27, 1997 to Elon falling 83-71.
In the history of the SAC Women's Basketball Championships, No. 4 seeds hold a tight 14-11 edge in quarterfinal meetings over five seeds while winning eight of the last 10 outings.
While Newberry is 8-0 on its home floor in the SAC Tournament, the group is just 3-10 on the road in the quarterfinals although seven of those games came as the No. 8 seed from 1998-2004. This year is the third time the club has been the No. 5 seed having won each of its first two times. The wins came in back-to-back years in 2005-06 winning 73-59 at Catawba and 72-67 at Mars Hill in successive years.
Newberry enters play riding the longest winning streak in the league having won seven straight games dating back to a 61-54 loss at Wingate on Feb. 1.
In the Jan. 21 meeting at Holt Fieldhouse, the Lady Eagles closed the game on an 11-3 run to beat the Wolves 83-73.
Sophomore Mika Wester (Newport, Tenn.) led the Lady Eagles with 27 points as she went 6-for-7 from the floor in the second half to go along with six reobunds and three assists.
Redshirt-junior Katie Stubblefield (Alcoa, Tenn.) had 14 points and six rebounds while sophomore Briana Smith (Nashville, Tenn.) finished with 13 points, seven rebounds and three assists.
Nicola Handreck ended the day with a career-high 36 points, besting her prior mark of 25 points. The junior went 9-for-17 from three-point range producing the third-highest made triples in a game in the history of the league. Her nine three-pointers were the most yielded by C-N since Nikki Van Dine made eight for Tusculum on March 7, 2009 in the SAC Quarterfinals as she became the first player to attempt 15 or more triples since at least 1995.
The game will be broadcast on the Eagle Sports Network's flagship station Mountain Country 106.3 WPFT-FM and across the globe on cneagles.com/live with video and audio streams starting at 5:45 p.m. with "The Appalachian Electric Cooperative Countdown to Tip-Off".
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