JEFFERSON CITY, Tenn. – Winners of five consecutive games, Carson-Newman (7-1, 2-0 SAC) stays on the road as it travels to Anderson (7-2, 0-2 SAC) tomorrow afternoon at 2 p.m. inside the Abney Center.
"Our schedule has been tough and its prepared us well," Carson-Newman women's basketball head coach Mike Mincey said. "To go to Tusculum, its always a tough place to play. I don't care about the records or stats. You have to go in there and bare down and I'm certainly proud of the effort. Now, we need to carry that to Anderson."
The five-game winning streak is the seventh straight season Mincey has led his team to such an achievement. This year's win streak has come by an average margin of 24 points. For the season, Carson-Newman's average scoring margin is 20.8, number one in the SAC and 13th nationally.
After scoring 21 points versus Tusculum on Wednesday, Braelyn Wykle (Greeneville, Tenn.) sits just 42 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 scored double-figures in 107 of her 119 games played.
Sporting the 13th best scoring offense in the country, the Lady Eagles have done so by being effective distributors of the basketball. Carson-Newman is averaging 18 assists per game, the fourth highest mark nationally. The assists have come with a low turnover mark. C-N's assist to turnover ratio is 1.18, the 14th best in the country.
C-N has got the job done on both ends of the floor. The defense has forced opponents to shoot 35% from the field, a top 30 mark nationally and has allowed just one opponent to reach 40% shooting. It ranks second in the SAC in scoring defense (59.9), steals per game (11.6) and blocks per game (4.0).
The Lady Eagles have not trailed in three of their eight games this season. Of the 320 minutes played so far this season, C-N has led 279:10 of that time or 87% of the time. Carson-Newman has only trailed for 23 minutes and 57 seconds this season.
Carson-Newman's trip to the Abney Center will be the first since Jan 8th, 2022, a 67-64 C-N win. The Lady Eagles have won their last two trips to Anderson and are 6-7 all-time away in the series. A revenge opportunity presents itself tomorrow for C-N, who had its season end to the Trojans last season in the SAC quarterfinals. AU ended a six-game skid to the Lady Eagles by leaving Holt Fieldhouse with a 72-64 loss. Carson-Newman leads the all-time series 19-13 and is 15-11 under Mincey.
After a trip to the South Atlantic Conference championship game this past season, the Trojans picked up where they left off, winning six straight games to begin the year. The impressive start earned Anderson a spot in the WBCA top 25 at #21. Now, the Trojans enter Saturday's game losers of two of their last three and off to an 0-2 start in SAC play for the first time under 8th year head coach Jonathan Barbaree. Both losses were on the road, a 7-point loss to Tusculum and a 13-point defeat to #6 Catawba.
Five weeks into the season, forward Diamond McDowell has earned three SAC Player of the Week honors and is averaging a double-double at 18.6 points per game and 10.1 rebounds per game. The other four starters in the lineup for AU all average in double-figures and are all shooting better than 44% from the field. Not a single player off the bench for the Trojans is averaging more than 9 minutes per game.
The Trojans are 4-0 this season at home and have won three of the four games by double-digits. They have won six straight home games dating back to last season.
Tipoff from the Abney Center is set for 2:00 p.m. Broadcast coverage airs on Mountain Talk 106.3 FM and cneagles.com/live starting at 1:45 p.m. with "The AEC Countdown to Tip-Off" courtesy of the Eagle Sports Network.
