VIDEO: Tusculum Highlights 2022
VIDEO: Full Game Replay of 2022
JEFFERSON CITY, Tenn. – Riding a four-game winning streak, Carson-Newman (6-1, 1-0) hits the road for the first time in nearly a month as it heads to Greeneville for a conference matchup against the Tusculum Pioneers (3-4, 1-1) tomorrow evening at 5:30 p.m.
Tomorrow's matchup is C-N's second true road game this season and the start of a week that features a road games against the Pioneers and then Anderson on Saturday.
"Our schedule so far has set us up for this stretch," Carson-Newman head coach Mike Mincey said. "We've played a pretty difficult schedule so far. It never gets easier, especially now going on the road to play Tusculum in a rivalry game. We've got Anderson coming up after that on Saturday. We're just trying to prepare ourselves the best we can and learn about ourselves."
During Carson-Newman's four-game winning streak, Mincey's team has outscored its opponents by an average of 21 points. That win streak now travels on the road for the first time in nearly a month. The Lady Eagles' only loss this season came on the road against Georgia Southwestern on Nov 17. C-N led by as many as eight in that game but was unable to overcome 33% shooting from the field. Dating back to the end of last season, C-N has lost five straight road games.
C-N's last win in the first road game in conference play was on Nov 17, 2021, a 94-68 smacking of the Pioneers.
After scoring a season-high 29 points versus Limestone, Braelyn Wykle (Greeneville, Tenn.) sits just 63 points away from becoming the program's all-time leading scorer. Wykle already set the record for three-pointers made last season and is up to 280 for her career. The graduate student leads the SAC in scoring averaging 20 points per game. She has made exactly 800 baskets in 117 games played.
C-N's defense has only allowed one opponent to shoot better than 40% from the field. The Lady Eagles are averaging 4 blocks per game, the most in the conference and the third most steals per game with 11 on average per game. A defensive possession is complete when the rebound is secured. C-N is 5-0 this when outrebounding the opponent, averaging nearly 31 per game, a mark that is 10th best in the country.
Carson-Newman and Tusculum are set to take the floor for the 82nd time, for a series that began in 1979. The Lady Eagles have dominated the series and hold the 60-21 advantage. Mincey's squad has won four of the last five games. Playing in Greeneville, C-N is 25-12, but has lost two of the last four trips to Pioneer Arena.
Roger Hodge is in his first season as head coach of the Pioneers. Entering his 19th year coaching, Hodge has 297 career wins and is with his fifth team. This is his second stint in the SAC after three seasons with Lincoln Memorial. He spent the past two seasons with West Virginia Tech where he went 32-29 overall.
The Pioneers were picked to finish eighth in the league. Hodge brought in 11 new players to the program this season. Among the transfers are two players from NCAA Division I schools, along with four junior college recruits and a fifth-year graduate player. The four freshmen include a pair of high school teammates along with two players who played their high school ball in Northeast Tennessee.
The first-year coach has his Pioneers 3-4 this season, falling last time out to Coker 87-71. Its first SAC win of the year came against #21 Anderson last Saturday at Pioneer Arena.
It's a balanced attack leading the way for the Pioneers, with four different players averaging double-figures and no one averaging more than 12 a night. TU is giving up the most points per game in the SAC, allowing 78 per game. Half of that is because teams are shooting 45% from the field and have outrebounded the Pioneers by an average of six boards.
Tip-off from Pioneer Arena is set for 5:30 p.m. Radio coverage on Mountain Talk 106.3 FM starts at 5:15 with the "AEC Countdown to Tip-Off."
