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JEFFERSON CITY, Tenn. – In the first home game of the year, No. 21 Carson-Newman welcomes Queens to Holt Fieldhouse Saturday afternoon at 2 p.m. in South Atlantic Conference play to extend its winning streak to three games.
After losing its final two home affairs of the 2020-21 season, the Lady Eagles are looking to avoid their first three-game home losing streak since a string of four in a row from Jan. 25 to Feb. 15, 2014 when the team posted a 9-8 mark at Holt that season, the lowest winning percent of the Mike Mincey era. Since that skid, C-N is 87-19 in contests at Mossy Creek.
"We have to continue to play the way we have," Mincey said. "We have been very efficient in how we play and our style of play. They are sharing the ball, being very coachable, bought into what we are doing and they are playing for each other at this point in time. I think as long as we stay that way and have the ability to play a lot of people and try to get into team's benches then I think we can have some success."
Mincey's unit has shot 50 percent or better in five of the last eight quarters and leads the conference shooting 49 percent from the floor buoyed by Lindsey Taylor (Maryville, Tenn.) and Braelyn Wykle (Greeneville, Tenn.) who ranked first and fourth respectively in the league in the area. The Orange and Blue are looking for a third straight 90-point scoring effort for the first time since a stretch of five, three of which were 100-point nights, from Jan. 17-31, 2018.
The Lady Eagles have won 13 straight home openers and all 10 of the contests under Mincey. Four of the last five have been by at least 26 with the lone exception coming last year by nine against Newberry. The average margin of victory of the last five is 31. Their last loss came on Nov. 16, 2007 when North Georgia upended C-N 81-79 to open the 2007-08 campaign.
Saturday is the 16th installment of Carson-Newman (2-1, 1-0) and Queens (1-1, 0-1) with the Lady Eagles winning each of the last 13, their longest current string against any SAC member, after dropping the first two of the series. Eleven of the 13 contests have been decided by double figures with the average margin of 25 including a separation of 28 at Holt Fieldhouse. Each of the last seven victories at home for Mincey's crew has come by at least 17 with six of the seven by 20 or more.
When the team's last met up on Feb. 6 at Holt Fieldhouse, the Lady Eagles shot 64 percent for the first half blowing out the Royals 93-62 behind 23 points from Wykle, 21 from Skylar Boshears (LaFollette, Tenn.) and 13 from Taylor to shoot 56 percent from the field.
The Royals have lost 12 consecutive SAC contests, four more than Mars Hill's eight for the longest active mark in the league. Fifteen Division II teams have a longer active skid. The last win came against Mars Hill on Jan. 30, 2021, a 74-60 victory over the Lions for the only SAC win of the season. Queens has not won a road SAC matchup since Dec. 18, 2019 when it beat Coker 77-63 for a drought of 20 affairs in a row.
After opening the year with a nine-point win over Emory & Henry, the team lost its league opener to Catawba, 70-57. Offensively the team has been one of the least efficient making 35 percent from the floor with a total of 12 triples. It has attempted an average of 22 free throws per game.
Queens is one of four clubs that have been outrebounded for the year by an average of five but teams are shooting 38 percent as the Indians were limited to a 36 percent clip but the unit had 19 second-chance points and 24 points off of turnovers.
Kalaya Hall has carried the load offensively racking up 16 and 25 points in the first two meetings of the year making 46 percent from the field and going 10-for-12 from the charity stripe. The junior led the team in scoring a year ago with 16 points per game scoring 20 or more six times.
Tune into the broadcast on the Eagle Sports Network starting at 1:45 for "The Appalachian Electric Cooperative Countdown to Tip-Off" on 106.3 (WPFT-FM, Sevierville) with audio and video streams available on cneagles.com/live free of charge.
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