VIDEO: Keeleigh Rogers Interview
JEFFERSON CITY, Tenn. – Remaining unbeaten at home, Carson-Newman (15-5, 9-3 SAC) outscored Lincoln Memorial (12-6, 7-5 SAC) by ten points in the fourth quarter to secure a fifth straight win, holding off the Railsplitters 72-64 Wednesday evening inside Holt Fieldhouse.
"The key was putting stops and scores together," Carson-Newman head coach Mike Mincey said. "They had us with our back to the wall a little bit. In a game like this, with the fantastic crowd we had tonight, you just want to get a little bit of a lead to get the buffer and be able to make a mistake down the stretch and it not kill you. I'm proud we got that early fourth quarter lead and held on to it."
Carson-Newman improved to an impressive 11-0 when playing inside of Holt Fieldhouse. The Lady Eagles have won five straight games for the second time this season and sit just a half game back of first place in the SAC standings.
Lindsey Taylor (Maryville, Tenn.) and Keeleigh Rogers (Farragut, Tenn.) both recorded double-doubles in the eight-point win. Taylor finished with 24 points and a season-high 15 rebounds for her seventh double-double this year and 22nd in her career. Rogers finished with 11 points and ten rebounds for her second career double-double, while also dishing out a team-high six assists. It's the first time in five seasons that C-N has had two players record double-doubles in one game. Addison Byrd and Kayla Marosites did it on the road against Anderson on Feb. 13, 2019.
"Keeleigh is a really good defender," Mincey said. "A lot of times she plays the 4 for us and she has point guard capabilities. She can grab the rebound and get down the floor like a point guard. She can certainly get going downhill with drives to the basket. Just a good performance out of her."
Carson-Newman scored the first six points of the game and forced LMU to commit five turnovers in the first three and a half minutes. The Railsplitters settled in by scoring six straight points, capped off by a Jordan Maney layup to give them their first lead at 11-10.
Maney scored seven straight points and led 16-12 early in the second period. The Lady Eagles responded with a 7-0 scoring run sparked by Keeleigh Rogers and Braelyn Wykle (Greeneville, Tenn.) to regain a 19-16 lead. C-N went on a pair of mini bursts to help extend the lead in quarter two. A 6-0 burst helped C-N create its largest lead of the half at eight points with 90 seconds until intermission. Lauren Flowers drilled a triple to bring the score to 35-30 at halftime.
Back-to-back baskets by Geovana Rios gave LMU its first lead of the second half at 38-37 with 5:37 in the third. Five straight points from Taylor increased C-N's lead to six points with 2:03 to go in the third quarter. LMU answered by scoring 11 of the final 14 points and grabbed a two-point lead heading to the fourth.
Carson-Newman locked in to start the final quarter, going on an 8-0 run over the first four minutes of the period to lead by six. After a Wykle triple, C-N increased the lead to eight with just four minutes to go. LMU cut the deficit back down to three after a pair of Smiddy free throws with 1:46 to play. A Campbell Penland (Sevierville, Tenn.) 20 seconds later pushed the lead back to five, forcing LMU to play the foul game in the final minute. Wykle made five free throws in the final 50 seconds to hold off LMU for the victory.
It's just the second win this season when C-N trailed to start the fourth quarter and just the 12th time its happened under Mincey.
Wykle finished with 10 points and made all 4 of Carson-Newman's three-pointers.
C-N is 12-1 this season when scoring 70 points or more and is 14-2 when the opponent scores less than that.
The Lady Eagles forced LMU to shoot 36.8% from the field. Its now the 11th straight game where Mincey's team has forced the opponent to shoot below 38% from the field. The defense came up with 11 steals and seven blocks. Five different players recorded at least two steals, and five also recorded at least one block.
Carson-Newman dominated the glass, outrebounding Lincoln Memorial 48-30 and 16-5 offensively. Those extra opportunities led to 17 second chance points. Four different C-N players grabbed seven rebounds or more, while no one from LMU had more than five.
Only five players scored for Lincoln Memorial but all five had double-figures, led by Alexa Smiddy's 18 points, 16 of which came after halftime.
Carson-Newman is back on the road on Saturday to battle #14 Catawba. 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.
