DETROIT – Drilling 11 three-pointers and shooting 49 percent from the field, Saginaw Valley State pulled away from Carson-Newman in the fourth quarter to hand the Lady Eagles their third straight loss, 72-55, in the Warrior Holiday Tournament at Wayne State Fieldhouse.
"One thing that we have learned is you can't look at an opponent's stats this early in the season," Carson-Newman coach Mike Mincey said. "They were not a great three-point shooting team. Maybe it was other team's defense. Maybe it was they didn't want to shoot three-pointers. When you step up here in two games and the two teams shoot lights out from the three and we shot it terrible in both games. We never got our footing in terms of shooting the basketball. The lead went to seven to a lot in a hurry because they had players make shots."
Despite forcing more turnovers, the Lady Eagles were outscored 20-15 in points off of turnovers and shot 38 percent from the floor burying four of 18 from long distance.
Carson-Newman (3-3) loses a third straight game for the first time since the 2015-16 season when it dropped three straight South Atlantic Conference matchups from Feb. 13-20, 2016. Saginaw Valley State (4-2) outrebounded C-N by 10 scoring 16 second-chance points.
Campbell Penland (Sevierville, Tenn.) paced the Lady Eagles with 12 points adding seven assists and four steals. Braelyn Wykle (Greeneville, Tenn.) finished with 11 points and three pilfers. Nine different players scored in the game.
After falling in an early four-point hole, the Lady Eagles seized the lead at 10-9 midway through the first frame. The teams swapped leads twice before the Cardinals went on top 16-14 after 10 minutes.
Carson-Newman opened the second stanza on a 6-2 burst to take the only to give up seven straight to dig a five-point hole. Saginaw Valley stretched the differential to 10 at 35-25 before C-N closed the first half with five unanswered points to go into halftime down 35-30.
Saginaw Valley pushed the margin to double figures at 43-33 with 6:28 to go in the third. C-N scored the next six points over the ensuing three minutes to cut the margin to four at 43-39. It would be the closest the club would get the rest of the way trailing 48-41 going into the fourth.
In the final period, the Cardinals buried six triples on nine attempts and went 9-for-18 from the field pushing the margin out to a game-high 21 points in the final 90 seconds.
Kaitlyn Zarycki led all players with 27 points going 10-for-19 from the floor burying five shots from beyond the arc adding 10 rebounds and six assists. Emma Dziezgowski was the only other Cardinal in double figures adding 12 points while Tori DePerry logged nine points and 10 boards.
The Lady Eagles open the doors to Holt Fieldhouse on Monday against No. 18 Catawba in a non-conference matchup at 5:30 p.m. Broadcast coverage airs on Mountain Talk 106.3 FM and cneagles.com/live starting at 5:15 p.m. with "The AEC Countdown to Tip-Off" courtesy of the Eagle Sports Network. Video is available with your subscription to FloSports.
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