Southeast Region Tournament Central Page
JEFFERSON CITY, Tenn. – One of the oldest rivalries in South Atlantic Conference history is renewed on Friday night at 6 p.m. when third-seeded Carson-Newman and sixth-seeded Catawba square off at Holt Fieldhouse in the opening round of the 2021 NCAA Women's Basketball Championship.
"That game with LMU in the quarterfinals – the first-half shooting performance was just so bad," Carson-Newman coach Mike Mincey said. "We will give LMU credit for how they defended us but typically we shoot it well here. We did not put our best foot forward in that game and got beat by six. It's been a bad taste in our mouth because we had to sit on that – before we play again it's going to be almost two weeks and we are ready to quit practicing against each other like preseason and get back into a real game."
Over the last four seasons, C-N has lost back-to-back games five times with its last three-game losing streak coming in Feb. 2016. Bouncing back from losses has been a strong point with the team earning double-digit victories in seven of its last eight wins following a loss.
Dancing for the 11th time in program history, this is the first time that the school has been to four consecutive NCAA Tournaments. Carson-Newman (15-3) had been to the dance in back-to-back seasons once doing so in 2009 and 2010. This year is the fifth time in coach Mike Mincey's 10 seasons at Mossy Creek that the Lady Eagles are in the field.
The last time the program made an appearance in at least four postseason national tournaments in a row came from 1989-93 when it went to five consecutive NAIA District 26 Playoffs winning three contests over that stretch.
Since the NCAA aligned to Southeast Region, this is the seventh time that a SAC school has hosted a regional with Mars Hill in 2002 and Carson-Newman in 2018 the only schools to win the region when doing so. Overall SAC host clubs are 7-4 with two first-round exits and two semifinal departures.
Albeit not the usual alignment, since the Southeast Region was established in 2009, three seeds have been to two regional finals with third-seeded Clayton State winning in 2009 over Francis Marion. The top seed has won five times, a seven seed has won thrice and one of each the two, three and four seeds has a trophy.
In 15 postseason games since joining Division II, Carson-Newman is 6-9 having won the first round contest in 2005, 2010 and 2018. Three of the wins came en route to a region title in 2018 and two came in 2005 when it was members of the South Atlantic Region losing the final to Shaw 67-53.
A school from the South Atlantic Conference has advanced to the Elite Eight on six occasions with Wingate going in 1995, 1996 and 2008. Mars Hill advanced to the national quarterfinals in 2002 and Tusculum made a trip in 2010. No program has won a game in the Elite Eight in those six outings.
Carson-Newman and Catawba (10-3) have met 71 times overall with the Lady Eagles on top 38-33 and this will be the ninth postseason matchup. The Indians have 5-3 overall edge in the postseason. Seven of the eight meetings have come in the SAC Tournament. On Feb. 25, 1993, the teams met in an NAIA Tournament Regional game in Salisbury, N.C. with the tribe coming out on top 75-70.
The Lady Eagles are in the midst of a nine-game winning streak in the series, the longest for either program in the 41-year history. The last time the Indians won a game over the Lady Eagles came at Holt Fieldhouse on Feb. 6, 2016, an 82-78 triumph.
In the first matchup, C-N turned the ball over 29 times, the most by the club since Nov. 12, 2016, leading to 30 Catawba points off of giveaways. However, the Orange and Blue escaped Salisbury with a 68-63 victory behind 55 percent shooting and 20 points from Braelyn Wykle (Greeneville, Tenn.).
"They are a really good team," Mincey said. "We struggled over there to take care of the ball turning it over 29 times. It was a very frustrating game. We were very fortunate to come out of it with a win. That was the game that Lindsey [Taylor] went down with an injury with about eight minutes to go. We didn't get to play them back here but no better time than the regional tournament."
Catawba is making its sixth trip to the NCAA Tournament and first since 2015 and is looking for its first-ever win losing three of the five contests by double figures. The only time the team has won a postseason game in a national tournament came in 1993 when it won the NAIA District 26 tournament by beating High Point, Lees-McRae and C-N before falling to Wayland Baptist in the Division I Championship.
Due to Covid, the Indians played the fewest games in the league this year at 13 winning five games in a row before falling 60-53 at Tusculum in SAC semifinals. Eight of the 13 games have been on the road where the team is 7-1. Most of the home/road splits are nearly identical with three double-digit victories.
Defensively, coach Terence McCutheon leads a team that is sixth in the country in steals per game with 12.6 per night with nine double-digit efforts including 20 against Newberry on Feb. 17. They have forced at least 20 turnovers 10 times and are scoring 21 points per game on average off of giveaways.
At the other end of the floor, the team is middle of the pack posting shy of 70 points per game ranking 10th in three-point efficiency at 29 percent. Only Coker shoots a worse free-throw percentage with Catawba checking in at 66.4 percent.
Shemya Stanback and Lyrik Thorne are two of the best pilfer artists in the country averaging 2.75 and 2.69 ranking in the top 25 nationally. Stanback was the lone Indian to garner postseason laurels being named a second-team selection The duo are the lone double-digit scorers for the club this year with both checking in at a notch above 11.
The usual outlets will provide the soundtrack for the contest with radio coverage on The Mountain 106.3 (WPFT-FM, Sevierville) and online with audio and video streams available on cneagles.com/live starting 15 minutes before the opening tap with "The AEC Countdown to Tip-Off".
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