ROME, Ga. – Haris Price became the 22nd player in program history to score 1,000 points as Carson-Newman started the second half with 24 unanswered points to run away from Shorter 83-37 Saturday afternoon at the Winthrop-King Centre.
"We challenged them in the locker room," Carson-Newman coach Mike Mincey said. "We put them on a number that we didn't want to give up. They couldn't give up much in the second half. We went out of the press and stayed in the zone for the entirety of the whole second half. I thought they did a good job.
"They made them take outside shots and they didn't give up easy stuff. We started shooting the ball well. We got some run outs and easy layups. We played well on the offensive end putting 30 up in that third quarter. I was very impressed with how they got stops coming out in the third quarter."
Price is the second Lady Eagle to join the club this season as Briana Smith (Nashville, Tenn.) did so earlier this month. Add the 321 points from her freshman season at Lee and the Gatlinburg, Tenn. native has 1,334 and 1,013 in the Orange and Blue after scoring 17 points on the day.
"She passed in last year in terms of the points she scored at her previous school," Mincey said. "To get it done in less than three years at Carson-Newman shows you what kind of player she is. I thought Haris played really hard in that first half trying to lead our basketball team."
The 24-0 run to begin the third frame is the longest for the team this season besting an 18-0 surge against USC Aiken. Carson-Newman (10-3) started last year's game against Shorter (1-10) with a 22-0 burst.
Addison Byrd (Nashville, Tenn.) led all scorers in the game with 24 points as she went 9-for-11 from the field and 6-for-7 from long distance.
"I felt like everything was easy," Byrd said. "I felt like I didn't have to push any shot. I had no pressure. I felt comfortable and I had good passes from my teammates."
The Lady Eagles made a season-high 12 triples making 52 percent of their attempts from long range while shooting 50 percent overall. The 46-point differential is the new largest margin of victory for the season topping last week's 33 at Mars Hill.
Kayla Marosites (Elizabethton, Tenn.) registered a double-double for the fourth straight contest tallying 10 points and 10 boards.
✅ Outscore Shorter 44-7 in the second half
— Carson-Newman Athletics (@CNathletics) December 29, 2018
✅ Career-high 6⃣ triples for @AddisonByrd3
✅ @CNwbasketball VICTORY pic.twitter.com/GK8KLyCFlV
Shorter scored the first points of the day before the Lady Eagles answered with a 13-2 spurt, the final eight being unanswered to run the margin to 13-4 with 5:10 to go in the first quarter. The Hawks went 4-for-14 from the field over the first 10 minutes as C-N made five of its eight three-point attempts to hold a 21-11 lead after 10 minutes.
The Hawks were plus-one in the second stanza thanks to shooting 50 percent from the field. Mincey's crew watched the lead stretch to 13 on multiple occasions but a triple from Kailee Tipton as the clock expired made it a nine-point game, 39-30, at the break.
Out of the locker room, Carson-Newman scored the first 24 points holding its foe scoreless for the first 7:25 of the third quarter pushing the margin to 63-30. Overall, the Lady Eagles outscored the Hawks 30-5 in the period making 63 percent of its shots from the field to take a 69-35 lead into the final stanza.
Tatum Ragsdale snapped a 0-for-10 stretch to start the fourth quarter with 4:12 to go in the game as the team went 1-for-16 in the fourth quarter and 3-for-29 in the second half. C-N outscored the Hawks 42-7 over the final 20 minutes of play.
Ragsdale was the only player in double figures in the game for the home team with 10 points while Raven Fair finished with eight points and 10 rebounds.
Shorter entered the game as the lowest scoring team in the nation as C-N held the Hawks to 10 points fewer than their season average.
The Lady Eagles celebrate the New Year before returning to Holt Fieldhouse next Saturday, Jan. 5, for a 2 p.m. tip-off against South Atlantic Conference foe Catawba.
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