JEFFERSON CITY, Tenn. – Kayla Marosites became the fifth player in Carson-Newman history to record 1,000 career points and 1,000 career rebounds helping the Lady Eagles to knock Catawba from first place in the South Atlantic Conference standings Saturday at Holt Fieldhouse in a 96-86 win.
"I mean it's just crazy because she didn't get to play her freshman year here," Carson-Newman coach Mike Mincey said. "She transferred in. It's not even a complete three seasons yet and she's over 1,000 points and 1,000 rebounds. If I told you all the stats, we would be here for a while. She is a really special player. Look at her stat line, 25, 13 and 15 of 15 from the free-throw line. She is a special player that I am going to hate to see go after this year."
The senior racked up 25 points making all 15 of her foul shots adding 13 rebounds and two assists for her 20th double-double of the year. She passed her former teammate, Briana Smith, for 11th on the school's scoring list as she sits five points shy of the top 10 bringing her career rebounding tally to an even 1,000. Of the four previous players to achieve the feat, only one did not play in the 1980s, Shari Buford. Buford had 1,496 points and 1,058 rebounds from 2006-10.
Carson-Newman (18-6, 14-4) led for all but 94 seconds on the day toppling Catawba (19-4, 14-4) for the eighth consecutive meeting. Mincey's crew drained 10 triples for the 16th time this year resetting the single-season record for such games in a year.
Freshman Braelyn Wykle (Greeneville, Tenn.) led all scorers with 26 points going 8-for-14 draining four three-pointers adding five assists in 38 minutes.
A trio of players scored eight points with Qua Hines (Gatlinburg, Tenn.) the only other individual in double figures for the Lady Eagles with 10 points on three of five shooting.
The home crew thrived at the free-throw line going 34-for-39, 87 percent, at the stripe, the first time in 82 games and 813 days that the team made at least 30 when it did so against Columbus State on Nov. 26, 2017. Marosites set the school's single-game flawless record passing a duo that had made all 14. In Division II this season, only two players have made more without a miss.
Carson-Newman came out of the gates swinging using a 12-0 to counteract two Madison Hallman free throws to jump out 12-2 in the first three minutes of the game. A 16-0 spurt moments later swelled the margin to 30-8 with 1:15 to go in the first.
"You can look at the stat sheet and see that we played well in the first quarter especially," Mincey said. "We came out and were hot. There were two areas that we had to do a great job and that was our turnovers and their offensive rebounds and looking at the stat sheet we did a pretty good job of that."
Catawba used a 10-0 sequence between the first two periods to close the gap to 32-21 a little over a minute into the second. The Indians shot 62 percent from the field in the second but C-N took a 54-41 lead into the locker room.
Chipping into the deficit, the visitors chiseled the margin down to seven with 7:38 to go in the third. It was a nine-point game when the Lady Eagles rattled off 11 unanswered to get the margin back to 20 as the team took a 76-57 advantage into the fourth.
Despite going 2-for-9 from the field in the final 10 minutes, the Lady Eagles went 16-for-19 at the line staving off a furious charge from the Indians to seal a season sweep.
Taisha DeShazo paced Catawba in scoring with 19 points on eight of 16 from the field. Lyrik Thorne and Shemya Stanbeck produced 14 and 13 respectively.
The Lady Eagles turn their attention to a three-game road trip starting on Wednesday night at Tusculum for a 5:30 p.m. tip looking to open up a two-game lead for second in the SAC standings. The Eagle Sports Network has the coverage on cneagles.com/live and 106.3 WPFT-FM.
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