C-N Women's Basketball Game Notes
JEFFERSON CITY, Tenn. – No. 4 seed Carson-Newman seeks a return to the South Atlantic Conference title game for the first time since 2007 when the Lady Eagles hit the Timmons Arena floor Saturday afternoon at noon against No. 1 seed Lincoln Memorial.
With a win over Newberry in the SAC Quarterfinals, the Lady Eagles secured the program's 18th 20-win season and the first for the school in seven years when the 2009-10 team went 24-7.
A pair of players earned spots on the league's all-conference groups as sophomore Mika Wester (Newport, Tenn.) became the first player in the program to see a spot on the top team since Zoriah Williams in 2011-12. The forward is second in the conference in scoring at 18.6 points per night, top 30 in the country.
Senior Kailyn Brooks (Lafayette, Tenn.) became the 12th player in program history to earn multiple All-SAC honors in her career after being an honorable mention pick in 2015-16. She ranks 12th in school history in points scored with 1,183 and sits in third place on the program's all-time three-pointers list and 10th in SAC history with 203. Her 80 made triples this season is a single-season program high.
Carson-Newman (20-9) and Lincoln Memorial (25-3) have met 83 times with the Lady Eagles holding a 51-32 advantage in the all-time series. The two programs have never met in the SAC Women's Basketball Championship. LMU is 6-3 against C-N since the start of the 2013 season.
A postseason meeting featuring the two schools has happened just two times with both occuring in the NAIA District 26 Tournament in consecutive seasons. The Railsplitters won each contest, an 88-74 win on Feb. 25, 1989 and an 86-78 win on Feb. 27, 1990.
Saturday is the eighth time that C-N will tussle with the No. 1 seed in the league tournament holding a 3-4 record including losses in each of the last three meetings with the regular season champions. The Lady Eagles defeated the top seeds in the 1999 and 2007 semifinals while toppling Wingate in the 2005 title game.
C-N is 23-25 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.
The semifinal matchup will be the 15th time in the history of the league that the No. 1 and No. 4 seeds play as the top seed holds a 10-4 advantage. Four seeds picked up wins in 1992, 1999, 2007 and 2010 with Wingate in 1992 and Tusculum in 2010 winning the tournament titles.
The Lady Eagles have played a ranked team three times this year going 1-2 in those outings while C-N is 6-3 against ranked squads under Mincey in six seasons.
The Railsplitters won the first meeting this year, 102-99 in overtime at Holt Fieldhouse on Nov. 22 while holding serve on their home floor with a 72-65 win on Jan. 25. It was the fifth straight time LMU won at Tex Turner Arena over the Lady Eagles. C-N's last win over LMU away from Mossy Creek came on Jan. 25, 2012.
Brooks led the way for C-N with 21 points, four rebounds and three steals while making five triples in the contest. Sophomore Briana Smith (Nashville, Tenn.) was the only other Lady Eagle in double figures finishing with 12 points and three boards.
Megan Pittman tallied her ninth double-double of the year with 23 points and 10 rebounds. Dasia Maxwell had 12 points, seven rebounds and three steals while Shea Coker finished with 11. Josey Harding added 12 boards.
LMU won its first regular season SAC Championship tallying the second-most wins, 19, in the history of the league falling just shy of Anderson's 20 set in 2014-15. The Railsplitters started the year 20-0 but are just 5-3 since suffering their first loss of the year to Wingate on Feb. 4.
Pittman won the league's Player of the Year honor while also being tabbed a CoSIDA Academic All-American. With 9.8 rebounds per game, she ranked second in the league behind teammate Josey Harding's 10.9. The senior ranked fifth in three-point shooting (44.8), sixth in points (15.6) and steals and seventh in free-throw percentage (81.5).
Shea Coker was named second-team All-SAC selection and Harding earned a spot on the honorable mention group. Coker is the club's second leading scorer at 13.2 points per game while ranking second in the conference with a three-point percentage of 47.4. In the first contest this year between C-N and LMU, Harding set the SAC record with 27 rebounds.
It is a battle between the two top scoring teams in the league as Carson-Newman ranks eighth in the nation at 81.2 points per night and LMU sits at 79. The Lady Eagles are the conference's leader in field-goal percentage at almost 45 percent while the Railsplitters sit in sixth just shy of 42 percent.
Saturday's winner will take on the victor of second-seeded Wingate and seventh-seeded Catawba Sunday afternoon at 1 p.m. from Greenville, S.C.
The Eagle Sports Network will be on location to broadcast the action courtside. Listeners can tune into the contest on Mountain Country 106.3 WPFT-FM or cneagles.com/live beginning at 11:45 a.m. with "The Appalachian Electric Cooperative Countdown to Tip-Off".
- CN -
