ANDERSON, S.C. – Skylar Boshears, Lindsey Taylor and Braelyn Wykle combined to score 55 points as the 10th-ranked Carson-Newman overcame a third-quarter deficit to topple Anderson 75-67 Monday Night at the Abney Athletic Center in South Atlantic Conference play.
"Braelyn got going – that opens up things," Carson-Newman coach Mike Mincey said. "Skylar has that ability to go shake you near the rim. Then you have Lindsey that you can throw the ball to and get those earned one-footers near the paint. The last one she got, when she got that seal, that was really easy points for her. Those are the points that we need to try to win on the road. I'm proud of them. They just wanted to win the game. They fed the guys that were hot."
The Lady Eagles shot 59 percent from the floor in the second half and after starting 9-for-29 from the field buried 21 of their final 35 field-goal attempts, 60 percent, against a team that ranked second in the SAC in scoring defense and field-goal percentage defense.
Taylor led the scoring trio with her fifth double-double of the season finishing with 21 points and 13 rebounds going 8-for-12 from the field.
Wykle made seven of her final 12 shots from the floor finishing with her seventh 20-point scoring effort of the year with 20 points adding six assists and four rebounds. Boshears rounded out the group with 14 points and five boards making seven of 13.
Carson-Newman (8-1, 8-1) had lost two in a row at Anderson (9-6, 8-5) clinching a series sweep for the third time in the series history along with the 2011-12 and 2017-18 years. The Lady Eagles pushed their record to 7-1 in Monday affairs under Mincey.
Despite failing to score over nearly a four-minute stretch in the opening period, the Trojans used an 8-2 run to go on top 14-10 at the end of the period. The spurt carried into the second stanza as it pushed out to a 15-5 burst to make it an eight-point game at 21-13 three minutes into the second.
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— Carson-Newman Athletics (@CNathletics) February 2, 2021
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The Lady Eagles found a rhythm late making their final three shots and four of their final six from the floor pulling even on a short jumper by Skylar Boshears to knot the tally at 30. It is the first time in nine games that the Orange and Blue did not lead at the break.
In the third period, the two teams traded buckets for much of the first four minutes but the Trojans took a 45-41 edge on a jumper from Kaitlin Bailey. C-N caught fire ripping off nine straight points in two minutes using a 19-3 burst capped by a long distance triple from Qua Hines (Sevierville, Tenn.) to go on top 60-48 at the 9:48 mark of the fourth frame.
"We just went to LMU and took a hard loss," Hines said. "Everyone knows that we didn't have the greatest defensive game that game and coach harped on defense. We got to play defense. Offense typically always comes to us so defense was the key tonight for us to win this game."
The closest Anderson would close the gap was the final margin of eight points on a trey from Taylor Hair with under 15 seconds to play. Mincey's team went 7-for-11 from the floor in the final period to continue its hot shooting in crunch time.
Overall there were eight ties and six lead changes as neither team led for more than 18 minutes on the evening. The game was deadlocked for 6:28 of game action. C-N finished the night plus-five on the glass, 44-39, against a team that was plus-seven on the year.
"We do have size," Mincey said. "That's the one thing that maybe some teams aren't able to provide is some size inside to try to keep them off of the boards. They are a really good rebounding team. Let's not make any bones about it, they have been playing with five guys for the last three games. This is the first game back with all of their players. Their rotation isn't right. I'm just saying that because that's the reality of Covid. For us to be able to outrebound a really good rebounding team in two games this year, I am super proud of our team."
J'Mya Cutter led the Trojans in scoring with a career-high 20 points. Samantha Michel, named SAC Player of the Week on Monday, notched a fourth-straight double-double with 17 points and a dozen boards. The duo went 15-for-27 from the field while the rest of the roster went 12-for-42.
The Lady Eagles hit the road again on Wednesday night travelling to Wingate for a 5:30 p.m. contest against the Bulldogs for the second time in 10 days. The contest airs locally on The Mountain (106.3, WPFT-FM Sevierville) and online at cneagles.com/live.
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