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GAFFNEY, S.C. – With a 17-day break coming into focus, Carson-Newman, playing shorthanded, gears up for its final game of the first semester travelling to the Timken Center on Saturday at 2 p.m. to face off against the Saints in South Atlantic Conference play.
"We know that we are not playing at full strength," Carson-Newman coach Mike Mincey said. "We have to grind it out through Christmas break. Any time you are playing a conference game especially on the road at Limestone, a place that we lost last year, it's obviously very important. We know the first game back against Coker we should be as full strength as we have been all season."
Carson-Newman (9-2, 7-1) has won nine of its last 10 road contests dating back to the start of February 2021. The lone blemish in that stretch came at Limestone (7-3, 4-3) on Feb. 20, a 72-67 setback against the Saints. Of the last five road losses for the program, all of them have been decided by two possessions or less with four by five and one by three. The last time the Lady Eagles lost by more than five on the road was a nine-point, 72-63, defeat to Anderson on Feb. 13, 2019.
The two programs collide for the fifth time with Limestone winning three of the first four. Three of the games have been decided by single digits with the Saints winning by 10 in the first meeting on Nov. 16, 2011. Carson-Newman's only victory came at Holt Fieldhouse on Dec. 12, 2020 holding off a late push by the Saints to win 87-82.
Mincey's club is winless in Gaffney losing both affairs including the setback in February where the Saints scored the first 11 points of the fourth quarter seeing the Lady Eagles 53-49 edge after three evaporate. Limestone went 11-for-13 at the free-throw line in the final period making five of six in the final 35 seconds to maintain the edge and close out the game.
Coach Corey Fox's team started the year 6-0, their best open to a season since 2015-16, but have lost three of the last four to three of the top four clubs in the SAC standings. The second half has proven to be the difference as the team is outscoring foes by 26 in the first half but is being outscored by 49 in the final 20 minutes of the game.
The Saints have one of the best scoring trios in the region with Quin Byrd, Reagan McCray and Reagan Kargo combining to average 43 of the team's 69 points per game. Byrd is second in the league behind Braelyn Wykle (Greeneville, Tenn.) in scoring over 18 points per game coming off of a season-high 32 at Anderson last Saturday going 9-for-28 from the field. It was the third time in the last six games she has dropped at least 23. However the senior has been held to single digits twice.
"It's hard when you have three guards out there that can all do something different," Mincey said. "Byrd is very athletic and can penetrate on you. We haven't been the best defensive team in the league this year. We have had certain players go off on us. We are hoping for a good performance. We are trying to find individual pieces that can guard especially those guards. We will see who shows up on Saturday and who is up to the challenge."
After scoring 74 points per game in November, the team is posting 62 per night through four games in December being held to 62 or less in three of the four outings. As a team, the roster is shooting 40 percent to rank sixth in the conference.
The Saints are one of the better defensive units in the conference holding foes to 38 percent shooting, the third-best rate in the SAC, while forcing nearly 19 turnovers per game. Limestone has held seven opponents to 40 percent or worse shooting and have won two of the three outings where a unit has shot 48 percent or better.
Tune into the broadcast on the Eagle Sports Network starting at 1:45 for "The Appalachian Electric Cooperative Countdown to Tip-Off" on Mountain Sports 106.3 (WPFT-FM, Sevierville) with an audio stream available on cneagles.com/live free of charge.
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