VIDEO: Mike Mincey Interview
JEFFERSON CITY, Tenn. – To open the 2022 South Atlantic Conference Women's Basketball Tournament, second-seeded Carson-Newman hosts seventh-seeded UVA Wise Wednesday evening at 7 p.m. looking to get back to Furman for the league semifinals for the first time in two years.
Dating back to last season, the Lady Eagles have won 13 straight Wednesday games with the last loss coming to Lincoln Memorial on the road on Jan. 27, 2021, 87-82. The string is 12 for home Wednesday contests since Jan. 15, 2020, a 71-66 setback to Tusculum.
Carson-Newman (23-5) is 27-29 all-time in the SAC Women's Basketball Championships with two titles in 2005 and 2018 appearing in six championship games in 1995, 1998, 1999, 2005, 2007 and 2018. The Lady Eagles have hosted a quarterfinal matchup 21 times with a 17-4 record.
This season is the eighth time that the Orange and Blue enter the league championships as the second seed accumulating an 9-6 record hoisting the crown in 2005 from the second slot. The last time the school was in this position came in 2019-20 when it beat Lenoir-Rhyne 105-71 in the first round before being bounced 81-73 by Tusculum in the semifinals.
Historically, No. 2 seeds are responsible for six titles (1999, 2005, 2008, 2009, 2014 and 2021) behind No. 1 seeds (13) and No. 3 (nine). By round, second seeds are 26-5 in the first round, 14-12 in the semifinals and 6-8 in the title game. The last time the No. 7 seed won a quarterfinal matchup came in 2017 when Catawba beat Anderson 70-64.
The Lady Eagles are one of three teams along with Catawba and Wingate to participate in each SAC Tournament since the first iteration in 1991. C-N had won 10 straight home SAC Quarterfinal matchups through 2018 but has dropped two of the last three to Lincoln Memorial.
On Wednesday, the Orange and Blue will take on UVA Wise (12-15) for the eighth time and the first in a postseason affair. Carson-Newman has won each of the first seven outings with six coming by double figures including a 17-point and 28-point victory this year.
In the two matchups, Mincey's team has received a scoring outburst from its top two leading scorers. In the first outing, Lindsey Taylor (Maryville, Tenn.) racked up 27 points and eight rebounds playing only the second half while Braelyn Wykle (Greeneville, Tenn.) scored a career-high 36 points on 12 of 21 shooting in the second win.
This is the second time Wise has reached the SAC Tournament since joining the conference three years ago beating 13th-seeded Queens last year by 22 before bowing out in the quarterfinals to fifth-seeded Anderson 65-49.
Picked to finish third in the league standings, the Cavaliers scuffled out of the gates on the year starting 3-11 before closing out the season 9-4. Five of the six wins in February came by double figures as the club averaged 71 points per game and shot 44 percent in the month.
While turnovers have been an issue, Wise beat Catawba by 16 on Saturday despite turning the ball over 34 times as the club averaged 19 per game, the third-most in the SAC. Coach Jamie Cluesman's team overcame that by shooting 53 percent as the team ranks fifth with a 41-percent margin overall.
Nia Vanzant and Kalee Johnson are two of the top 11 scorers in the conference. Vanzant leads the club with 16 per game playing 36 minutes per night having scored at least 10 in seven games in a row. Johnson is averaged 18 per game in February with four 20-point scoring efforts.
Fans can enjoy the broadcast on the Eagle Sports Network starting at 5:15 p.m. for "The Appalachian Electric Cooperative Countdown to Tip-Off" on Mountain Sports 106.3 (WPFT-FM, Sevierville) with audio and video streams available on cneagles.com/live free of charge.
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