HICKORY, N.C. – Winners of three straight games and finding consistency on both ends of the floor, Carson-Newman completes a mini road trip on Wednesday night at 5:30 p.m. at Shuford Gym against South Atlantic Conference foe Lenoir-Rhyne.
The Lady Eagles are coming off of two straight wins where they have held their opponents to 30 percent shooting or worse. It is the first time that a Carson-Newman (8-4, 4-2) team accomplished that feat since the 2006-07 season. That club did so twice in the first nine games of the year most recently Dec. 10-13, 2006 against Converse and Brevard. There are no recorded streaks of three straight outings dating back to 2002.
Wednesday night is the 75th all-time meeting with Lenoir-Rhyne (4-8, 2-4) with C-N holding a 45-29 advantage with wins in five of the last six. Each team has won 17 times in contests played in Hickory. The Orange and Blue have won each of its last two trips since a Dec. 17, 2016 57-56 setback to the Bears seeking its first three-game string since 2006-08.
Last season's visit proved to be a historical day at the arena with current assistant coach Haris Price becoming the first Carson-Newman player in 40 years to score 40 points scoring 31 of her 44 points after the break to lead the Lady Eagles' 89-81 come-from-behind win over Lenoir-Rhyne.
Price went 16-for-26 from the field in the game as the team fell behind 37-21 four minutes into the second quarter and trailing by nine at halftime. The lead was three entering the fourth before an 11-3 run stretch the differential to eight before the senior guard put the finishing touches on a masterpiece.
The Bears entered the season looking to find a replacement for one of the most efficient scorers from a year ago in Madi Suddreth being ranked fifth in the preseason poll. Preseason second-team pick Madeline Hardy posted 11 points per game in SAC outings and over 13 points in her final 11 games of the year.
Lenoir-Rhyne has won two of its last three games having played eight of 12 outings on the road this season including a seven-game stretch to close out 2019. While the unit is averaging nearly six points fewer on the road, the biggest difference comes on the glass where it posts nine fewer boards in road affairs than at home.
In four wins, coach Cameron Sealey's crew is winning by average of 15 points with each victory by double figures. Conversely, the team is losing by just shy of 15 points per game this year but has played three, single-digit games.
Yielding an average of 71 points per game this season, opponents are shooting 43 percent from the field, a mark that ranks 11th in the conference and 260th in the country. Three teams have shot 54 percent or higher as opponents have hit at least 42 percent in seven of the eight losses.
Ranking no higher than third in the SAC in any statistical category, L-R is fifth in the league in free-throw percentage at 70 percent as a team. The club is ninth in the league in rebounding margin at minus-2.4 collecting a total of 36.9 on average this season.
Hardy is the team's leading scorer this season posting 15.8 points per game, seventh in the SAC. She leads the league and is 16th nationally in made free throws with 60 on the year shooting 80 percent at the line. Hardy has four 20-point scoring efforts on the year and has five double-doubles racking up nearly nine rebounds on average.
She is the only player on the roster to average double digits on the year with Kennedy Weigt posting nine points per game. The guard has taken a league-leading 91 three-pointers on the year. She had been six of 38 from distance with 26 points in six games prior to scoring 15 on 5-for-9 shooting from beyond the arc against Coker on Saturday.
Tune into the broadcast coverage starting at 5:15 p.m. on 106.3 (WPFT-FM, Sevierville) in the Lakeway Region and across the map on cneagles.com/live with "The Appalachian Electric Cooperative Countdown to Tip-Off" on the Eagle Sports Network.
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