VIDEO: Wingate Highlights Nov. 2023
JEFFERSON CITY, Tenn. - Eyeing road success, Carson-Newman (11-5, 5-3 SAC) heads to Wingate, North Carolina on Saturday afternoon, hoping to complete a season sweep of Wingate (11-5, 6-2).
"It's great that we have played so well at home this season," Carson-Newman head coach Mike Mincey said. "We have to go on the road and do well. That is the one thing that has been missing this year. All five losses have come to teams with a 70% winning percentage this season. Saturday gives us another opportunity to win one away from home."
Carson-Newman is 1-5 on the road this season and has lost nine of its last ten road games dating back to the end of last season. Four of the five losses have been by single digits, with three of them basically being one-possession games as well. All the road defeats have come against teams with ten wins or more this season.
Lindsey Taylor (Maryville, Tenn.) is playing some of the best basketball of her career. She has scored in double-figures in five straight games and has done so in 13 of C-N's 16 games this season. Already achieving 1,000 points for her career earlier this season, she achieved 1,000 points for her Carson-Newman playing career in a 91-66 rout of UVA Wise yesterday afternoon. Taylor tied season-high with 32 points on 11-12 shooting and making a career-high 10 free throws in 10 attempts.
The matchup with the Bulldogs on Saturday will be the second time this season the two squads will square off, and the 85th all-time meeting. The Lady Eagles never trailed in a 93-64 win over #23 Wingate back on November 21st. The victory was the second straight time the Lady Eagles have defeated Wingate as a ranked team. C-N jumped out to a 25-13 lead at the end of the first quarter and never looked back from there. Mincey's team outscored Wingate 28-11 in the second quarter and led by 29 points at intermission. That halftime lead is still C-N's largest in any game this season. Into the third quarter, the lead got up to 42 points, before Wingate outscored C-N in the fourth to suffer its worse loss against the Lady Eagles. Carson-Newman held star guards Hannah Clark and Emily Hege to a combined 5-21 shooting and 18 points.
Just one game separates the two teams in the SAC standings. Wingate holds the game edge at 6-2 in the league to C-N's 5-3 mark. The meeting earlier this season was a non-conference contest.
Carson-Newman's last victory at Cuddy Arena came on Feb 3, 2021. Braelyn Wykle (Greeneville, Tenn.) scored 33 points and made six of her nine three-pointers to help lead the Lady Eagles to a 21-point road victory over the Bulldogs.
After suffering that 29-point loss to Carson-Newman just before Thanksgiving break, Wingate has gone 9-3 to improve its record to 11-5 overall and 6-2 in SAC play. Prior to a three-point road loss to Anderson on Wednesday, the Bulldogs had been playing their best basketball of the season, riding a five-game winning streak with each victory by double digits. That stretch included a 13-point home win over #4 Catawba.
Clark and Hege continue to lead the Wingate offense. The duo combines to average more than half of the team's points, both at 18 points per game. Both guards are extremely efficient, shooting above 45% from the field and from beyond the arc this season. Because of the duo's shooting ability, the Bulldogs are the best three-point shooting team in the country, making 43% of their three-pointers. The efficient clip from deep can be attributed to just 15 threes taking per game, which ranks 250th nationally.
Tipoff from Cuddy Arena 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.
