JEFFERSON CITY, Tenn. – In its final road game of 2017, No. 6 Carson-Newman hits the trail to face Queens (N.C.) in South Atlantic Conference play Wednesday evening at 6 p.m.
Carson-Newman (11-0, 4-0) is looking to find its shooting stroke on the road. In true road outings, the team is scoring 82 points per game shooting 41 percent from the floor but just 28 percent, 35-for-127, from long range. By comparison, in the other six games the Lady Eagles are posting 111 points per game shooting 54 percent and converting 45 percent, 73-for-161, of their three-point attempts.
"I'm going to tell them to keep shooting it," Carson-Newman women's basketball coach said. "It's going to go down eventually. We have shot it well in true road games at USC Aiken and North Georgia. King, Newberry and Anderson – not so much. We are averaging 115 points at home and then you get on the road and it's not nearly as much."
The last time the program scored triple digits in a road game came on Jan. 20, 2010 at Brevard in a 114-64 drubbing of the Tornados, a span of 230 games and 2,885 days.
Since dropping the first two games of the series in 2014, C-N has rattled off six straight victories against the Royals winning by an average of 17.5 points. The closest battles have come in Charlotte where the Lady Eagles are posting 63 points in four contests.
Jecca Simerly scored 10 points in each meeting in 2017-18 while Mika Wester registered 10 and 14 points respectively in the two contests. In the Dec. 10, 2016 contest, Katie Stubblefield had 16 points and five assists.
Queens (3-5, 0-3) was picked to finish ninth in the preseason poll due to one of the least effective offenses in the nation last year scoring 51.5 points per game, a mark that only five teams recorded a lower tally.
Entering play Wednesday evening, the Royals are tied with Mars Hill at the bottom of the SAC standings having lost four of its last five games since opening the campaign 2-1.
The offense for coach Sarah Jansen is eighth in the league and in the middle of the pack nationally with 65.5 points per game. In five losses, the school is scoring 56.2 points per game compared to 81 points in the three victories. In its last two games, Queens is 17-for-36 from three-point range after making 25 percent of its attempts to open the year.
On the glass, the Royals are second from the bottom with 39 boards per night, a number that dips to an average of 28 in three conference contests pulling in no more than 34 in three SAC efforts.
Jansen's standout player is Iowa Western Community College transfer Lade Adepoju. The junior is scoring 15.6 points per game, eighth in the league while shooting 54 percent from the field, good for third in the league, scoring in double figures in each game this season.
"She's pretty athletic," Mincey stated. "She can get to the rim. You have to be able to cut off the lanes. A lot of these players are new into coach Jansen's system. They have a couple players that are playing well for them."
Overall three players are scoring in double digits with Mandy McNeese is posting 12.6 and Kristian Eanes is at 10.3 points per game. The top four scorers have accounted for nearly 70 percent of the team's scoring on the year.
Fans can listen to the game on 106.3 WPFT-FM Mountain Country and cneagles.com/live starting at 5:45 p.m. with "The Appalachian Electric Cooperative Countdown to Tip-Off" on the Eagle Sports Network.
✅ Highest @NCAADII ranking in school history.@CNwbasketball rises to 6⃣ in @wbca1981 poll.
— C-N Athletics (@CNathletics) December 12, 2017
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