VIDEO: Lindsey Taylor Interview
JEFFERSON CITY, Tenn. – For the third time this season and second in a row, Carson-Newman (4-1) dominated its opponent from start to finish, never trailing in a 93-64 dominating win over the Wingate Bulldogs on Tuesday evening inside Holt Fieldhouse.
"We were great on both ends of the floor," Carson-Newman head coach Mike Mincey said. "Lots of energy, very efficient, got great production out of Lindsey (Taylor). When you have Lindsey and Braelyn (Wykle) in sync on the same day, that's probably going to be a good day for us. We had a 26-point lead last time out against Columbus State and they cut it back to nine, so most of our talk was telling them that we cannot let that happen again. Let's go out and play as hard as we did in the first half. Happy that we came out in the 3rd and outscored them 24-18
Winning by 29 points secured C-N its largest win over Wingate in the series' history. The biggest previous win for C-N was by 28 points in 1999.
It's the second straight time C-N has faced Wingate when the Bulldogs have been ranked number 23 in the country. C-N has now defeated a ranked team for the ninth straight year. The last two ranked victories have come by an average margin of 30 points.
After securing the 2-0 lead, C-N never let Wingate sniff the lead and led for the rest of the game. It's now the second straight game that the Lady Eagles have gained the lead from the start and never let it go away.
Per usual this season, C-N raced out to another impressive start by going on a 14-3 scoring run in the first four minutes of the contest. The Lady Eagles increased that margin to 12 points by the end of the period and led 25-13 after 1. Lindsey Taylor (Maryville, Tenn.) paced C-N in the opening frame with 10 points. Carson-Newman has now outscored its opponents by 43 points in first quarters this season.
Taylor finished the contest with 20 points on 10 for 13 shooting and grabbed 12 rebounds for her second straight double-double and third this season.
It was all about the presence we have from everyone on the floor, Taylor said. "We've got shooters outside, so its hard for them to double down on me. When you have shooters like Braelyn, Campbell, Sky and everyone else. Getting shots from all of them works out really well for our offense.
C-N started the second period, just as strong as it started the first, going on a 12-2 scoring run. Four different Lady Eagles scored in the run and a Campbell Penland (Sevierville, Tenn.) three-pointer capped the run and extended the advantage to 20 points at the 5:19 mark. After a couple made baskets, C-N went on another run, a 10-0 scoring run to swell the lead to 27 points with two and a half minutes to go in the half. A Keeleigh Rogers (Farragut, Tenn) three-pointer and a Makayla Alvey (Dandridge, Tenn.) free throw pushed the margin to 29 points at halftime, C-N's biggest lead after a first half this season. Their 53 first half points were also the most in a half this season.
The Lady Eagles gave no hope to the Bulldogs to start the third quarter, scoring eight of the first eleven points and the lead grew to 36. Leading by 35, C-N went on another 7-0 scoring run to secure its biggest lead of the game at 42 points. Wingate outscored C-N 12-5 in the final four minutes and trailed by 35 after three quarters.
Wingate continued to battle and went on a 10-0 scoring run in the 4th quarter to trim the deficit to 82-55 with 4:54 to go. The Lady Eagles outscored Wingate by two points the rest of the way to run away with a 93-64 win.
Carson-Newman shot an efficient 50 percent in the win. It's the first time since February of 2022 that C-N has shot above 50% in back-to-back games. On the flip side, C-N defensively forced Wingate to shoot 34% from the field, its lowest percentage of the year. Through five games this season, no opponent has shot better than 40% from the field against the Lady Eagles. It's the first time that has happened since Feb. 2022 as well.
The defense forced 18 turnovers and scored 19 points off the Bulldogs mistakes. Eight different players came up with a steal in victory.
The Lady Eagles dominated both the offensive and defensive glass. Mincey's team snared down 47 rebounds to Wingate's 34 and managed 15 offensive rebounds as well. C-N is now 4-0 when outrebounds its opposition.
Following behind Taylor' 20-point night, was Braelyn Wykle (Greeneville, Tenn.) who scored 19 points on an efficient seven for 14 shooting from the field. She also dished out a team-best five assists. In 18 minutes off the bench, Alvey scored 12 points and nailed all three of her triples.
Tori Rutherford (Rutledge, Tenn.) scored nine points on four made shots and secured two steals. She has recorded multiple steals in all five games this season. Skylar Boshears (LaFollette, Tenn.) and Campbell Penland each stuffed the stat sheet, with Boshears scoring eight points, grabbing four boards and dishing out four assists. Penland had nine points, six rebounds and tied Wykle in assists with five.
Jaia Wilson paced three double-digit scorers for Wingate scoring 13 points on six of eight shooting. Off the bench, Lia Anderson had 10 points and 11 rebounds for a double-double.
Carson-Newman gets the next eight days off and returns to action at Holt Fieldhouse on Nov. 29th versus Belmont Abbey at 5:30 p.m.
