JEFFERSON CITY, Tenn. – Abby Wilson drilled her first six three-pointers tossing in a career-high 18 points to help Carson-Newman blast Tusculum 82-66 in South Atlantic Conference play Wednesday evening at Holt Fieldhouse.
Wilson finished the game with four rebounds and two steals in 22 minutes going 6-for-8 from long range. The Kingston, Tenn. native's previous career high was 16 points against Lenoir-Rhyne on Feb. 12, 2020.
"It felt good," Wilson said. "I just had the ball and it's probably going out because I was feeling it. When you see that first shot go and the next one go in, it's game on from there."
Carson-Newman (18-4, 15-3) sweeps the season series with Tusculum (7-13, 5-11) for the fourth time in the last six years running its home winning streak to eight in a row. The Lady Eagles are 34-6 at home against the Pioneers in the all-time meetings.
"We actually went small," Carson-Newman coach Mike Mincey said. "We were able to get a few stops. They were playing five guards and stretch the floor out. It was straining our defense a little bit much like the LMU game. I think we guarded a little better and got to the free-throw line to stretch that thing out."
Lindsey Taylor (Maryville, Tenn.) added 17 points making six of eight from the field and five of six at the free-throw line with six rebounds and a couple assists.
Harli Smith (Jamestown, Tenn.) made six of 10 from the field scoring 14 points adding seven rebounds and three assists. Campbell Penland (Sevierville, Tenn) chipped in 13 points and Braelyn Wykle (Greeneville, Tenn.) had a dozen with four assists and four steals. It was the second time in 16 days that the team had five players in double figures.
�� Career night for @abby22wilson
— Carson-Newman Athletics (@CN_Eagles) February 3, 2022
8️⃣th straight home win
✅ Season sweep of Tusculum
�� @CNwbasketball win pic.twitter.com/nd5BTQPDnL
The Orange and Blue had not made more than eight trifectas in a game this year but drilled 10 of 25, 40 percent, in the contest. Mincey's team assisted on 20 of 28 made field goals. For the first time this year the team failed to score double digits off of turnovers mustering six on 16 Tusculum giveaways.
Tusculum tallied the first points of the day before the Lady Eagles rattled off eight straight and swelled the margin to 16-8 on a triple from Wilson with 4:12 to play in the first half. However the Pioneers closed the quarter on a 12-5 surge to close within a point at 21-20 after 10 minutes.
The second stanza saw the teams trade buckets for the first seven minutes when Jordan Rogers made a layup to close the gap to 32-31. Carson-Newman held the visitors to zero points to close out the half rattling off nine consecutive points to go on top 41-31 at the break.
Wilson pushed the margin out to 14 points with a three-pointer at the 4:06 mark of the third quarter before the club failed to score over a 3:26 stretch allowing the Pioneers to score seven straight and close the gap to 56-49. The teams traded buckets as C-N took a 59-51 edge to the fourth.
To open up the final period the home group strung together seven straight points and started on a 14-3 surge capped by foul shots from Taylor with 6:29 to go. The margin swelled to 22 before Tusculum scored the final six points of the game.
Tusculum shot 33 percent for the game and 29 percent in the second half as 11 of the team's 21 made shots for the game came from beyond the arc.
Carson-Newman was plus-12 on the glass leading 43-31 securing 12 offensive rebounds leading to 17 second-chance points. However the Lady Eagles turned the ball over 19 times leading to 15 points for the Pioneers.
Mya Belton led the club from Greeneville in scoring with 17 points adding eight rebounds. Jalia Arnwine tallied 14 points and the team's leading scorer, Brianna Dixon, made two of 10 from the field and finished with nine points.
The Lady Eagles hit the road on Saturday at 2 p.m. at Queens looking to complete the season sweep of the Royals. Air time on the Eagle Sports Network is 1:45 p.m. with "The AEC Countdown to Tip-Off" on Mountain Sports 106.3 (WPFT-FM, Sevierville) with an audio stream available on cneagles.com/live.
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