ROCK HILL, S.C.- Lindsey Taylor and Braelyn Wykle both earned first-team all-conference honors as announced by the South Atlantic Conference earlier today.
With the dynamic duo on the first-team, it's the sixth time in the last seven seasons the Lady Eagles have placed a duo on the All-SAC first-team. Both Taylor and Wykle were preseason All-SAC First-team picks and played up to that expectation to earn the honors once again.
Carson-Newman was the only SAC school that had multiple players represented on the first-team.
For the fifth consecutive season, Wykle is a first-team All-SAC selection, the most ever by a player in program history. On Dec. 30, Wykle passed Lisa Stogner, becoming the program's all-time leading scorer. She is up to 2,679 points in her career and ranks sixth all-time on the DII women's basketball scoring list. Over the weekend, the graduate student reset the school's single-season and single-game record for three-pointers made. She made 13 three-point baskets for a career-high 45 points in a 34-point win in the regular season finale. Her fourth three-pointer of the game broke the single-season mark for three-pointers set by Kailyn Brooks during the 2016-17 season.
This season, Wykle has scored double figures in 25 of C-N's 28 games and has 13 20-point nights. She is averaging 19.6 points per game this season and is doing so on efficient 45/41/87 splits, all of which are right at her career averages. Wykle has led C-N in scoring on 13 different occasions and has 15 games with at least 3 three-pointers.
Nationally, the Greeneville, Tenn native ranks tenth in three-pointers scored this season and is 22nd in points per game. The guard has been on a tear to end the regular season. She has shot 50% or better in her last five games and has made 29 three-pointers, averaging 30.2 points per game.
Among active Division II players, she is first in career points, field goals made and three-pointers made. Wykle lands second among active players with a career free throw mark of 86.7 and is third in career scoring average at 19.3.
Taylor earns First-team All-SAC honors for the third time in C-N career. The forward is having another super-efficient season, making shots at a 62.9% rate, the second most-efficient mark nationally. That percentage is .9 percent better than the single season record mark she set in 2021-22. Taylor has made 50% of her shots 21 times this year and seven straight to end the regular season. In 82 career games, Taylor has made more than half of her shots in 62 of those contests.
She has scored 20 points or more nine times this season and has led Carson-Newman in scoring eleven times. She has gone for a season-high 32 points on two different occasions during conference play. During a three-game stretch to begin the second semester, Taylor made 34 of her 44 shots averaging 26.3 points and nine rebounds.
For the season, Taylor averages 15.8 points and a team-high seven rebounds per game. C-N averages the 12th-most rebounds per game nationally because of Taylor's success on the glass. The Maryville, Tenn. native has anchored one of the best defenses in the conference this season. She has blocked 24 shots and has been a vital interior piece to a Lady Eagle defense that has the best field goal percentage defense in the conference.
Taylor and Wykle lead Carson-Newman into the South Atlantic Conference Tournament quarterfinals on Wednesday against six-seeded Anderson at 2:30 p.m. Broadcast coverage on the Eagle Sports Network begins at 2:15 p.m. with "The AEC Countdown to Tip-Off" on Mountain Sports 106.3 (WPFT-FM, Sevierville) with an audio stream available on cneagles.com/live.
