HICKORY, N.C. – Third-ranked Lander shot 51 percent from the field and 80 percent at the free-throw maintaining a lead over 39 minutes to down 21st-ranked Carson-Newman 84-72 in the season opener at Shuford Gym Saturday.
"They make you pay near the rim," Carson-Newman coach Mike Mincey said. "I think we struggled in the first half and the second half of making shots that are very makeable. They were making shots. We put them at the free-throw line way too much. You get outscored by 12 at the free-throw line. What do we lose by? 12."
In the seventh showdown between top 25 teams of Mincey's career, the Lady Eagles fell shy for just the second time as the club moves to 1-5 against ranked teams on neutral courts. In his tenure, the team falls to 2-3 against top 10 teams.
Carson-Newman (0-1) had won three of the first four meetings against a ranked Lander (1-0) team prior to the loss seeing the series inch closer to a 9-8 Eagle edge. The Orange and Blue had won nine straight season openers before the loss on Saturday seeing the string come to a close. The last loss came on Nov. 9, 2012 against Coker in Harrogate. It is just the second loss for the Lady Eagles in the South Atlantic Conference/Peach Belt Conference crossover falling to 11-2 since it was started in 2014.
After the Lady Eagles scored the first points of the game, Lander scored the next five and used an 8-0 burst to go ahead 15-6 with 6:34 to go in the opening frame to force a timeout. The Lady Eagles surged pulling within one at 22-21 three minutes later scoring five straight but the Bearcats close the quarter on a 12-2 run to go ahead 31-23 after 10 minutes.
In the second frame, Mincey's club closed the margin to five but the third-ranked team in the nation slowly built up a 12-point lead with 86 seconds to go before halftime. C-N scored the final four points of the half to trim it to a 50-42 differential.
Spanning the half, the Lady Eagles scored eight in a row producing the first four points of the second half to cut the deficit to 50-46 one minute into the second. It would be the closest the team would get the rest of the way. The Bearcats scored seven of the next nine to swell the bulge to nine. After 30 minutes of play the margin was once again eight at 66-58.
C-N scored the first points of the fourth to cut the contest to six but Lander scored 16 of the next 20 points to push the margin out to a game-high 16 points at 80-64 with 4:18 to play. The Lady Eagles did not make a field goal over the final 2:07 settling on the final tally of 84-72.
The 12-point different was the 21st time in Mincey's 288 games on the bench that the program lost a game by at least 11. Carson-Newman shot 41 percent from the floor but went 8-for-17 at the free-throw line and going 0-for-8 from three-point range in the second half after making 8-for-18 in the first half.
Braelyn Wykle (Greeneville, Tenn.) paced the Lady Eagles with 16 points going 7-for-13 from the field. Addison Byrd (Nashville, Tenn.) tossed in 10 points. The starting five scored 39 points while the bench showed well with 33 points.
Campbell Penland (Sevierville, Tenn.) led the charge by the reserves with 11 points in her debut. Abby Wilson (Kingston, Tenn.) added eight. Tori Rutherford (Rutledge, Tenn.) tallied five steals, five assists and four points in her first college game. Taylor Goforth (Friendsville, Tenn.) led the team with nine rebounds scoring four points with four assists.
"Two of those players are freshman," Mincey said. "They came in and certainly didn't play like freshman. I mean you can't pick a harder opponent to start your college career off against. I think Tori and Campbell played well. Abby has been hampered with some injuries in the preseason and when she is healthy she is one of the fastest people in the region. Goforth gave us all she had. We are very deep and we thought we would be. It was going to take this game to figure out if we can play like we did through three scrimmages. I think tonight showed that we can."
Lander dominated the glass holding a 45-29 lead in the category with 12 of C-N's boards coming at the offensive end leading to 15 points. The Bearcats went 20-for-25 at the charity stripe.
Zamiya Passmore led all scorers with 21 points adding nine boards. Makaila Cange notched a double-double with 20 points and 10 rebounds going 10-for-11 at the free-throw line. All told, Lander saw five players score in double figures. Amiaya Melvins recorded 12 with seven boards while Sarah Crews and Miriam Recarte each had 11 points.
The Lady Eagles get their final preparations in before South Atlantic Conference action on Sunday at 3 p.m. against USC Aiken. Broadcast coverage airs exclusively on cneagles.com/live starting at 2:45 p.m. with "The AEC Countdown to Tip-Off".
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