JEFFERSON CITY, Tenn. - Carson-Newman women's basketball head coach Mike Mincey has announced the addition of 5'7 point guard Jennifer Sullivan, who has committed to play for the Lady Eagles in the 2024-25 season.
"Having Jenn Sullivan sign with our program is about as big as it gets," Mincey said. "She does so many things well on both ends of the floor. She won almost every award you can while competing at Bearden and she can add to the success we've had with local players and local players that have transferred back. She will fit in perfectly with everyone here and her skill set will go nicely with our current roster and how we play. Having competed for TN Tech the past two years, she is more than ready to do big things for us. I can't wait to see her in a Carson-Newman uniform next season."
Sullivan joins Mincey's program after spending the past two seasons at Tennessee Tech. In two seasons with the Golden Eagles, The Former 4A Miss Basketball played in 33 games making two starts. She scored a career-high 12 points in a one-point loss to Missouri earlier on Nov 24.
The Knoxville native began making her name known when she started playing at The King's Academy in the 8th grade. During her first two seasons of high school basketball at The King's Academy, Sullivan was a scoring machine. She averaged 25 points a game as a freshman, topping 1,000 points in her first year, then averaged 17 points as a sophomore in route to becoming TKA's all-time leading scorer. As a freshman, she also averaged five rebounds and five assists a game, following up with seven rebounds and five assists a game as a sophomore.
Entering her junior year, Sullivan transferred to Class 4A Bearden and was high school teammates with current Lady Eagle sophomore Emily Gonzalez. At Bearden, she averaged 12 points, five rebounds and five assists in the TSSAA's top classification, helping lead the Lady Bulldogs to championships in District 4-AAA and Region 2-AAA and advancing to the state tournament. With her effort, Bearden finished 14-0 in District 4-AAA and 30-2 overall, including an impressive 22-game winning streak.
Her senior season, Sullivan was the TSSAA Class 4A Miss Basketball in 2022, leading her squad to a Class 4A state championship with an average of 15.3 points, 5.4 rebounds, 4.6 assists and 2.6 steals per game.
She completed her prep career with 2,300 points, 500 rebounds, 400 assists and 250 steals. She was named all-district four times, all-region three times, all-state twice and was named Player of the Year by Knoxville News-Sentinel's PrepXtra and by 5-Star Preps.
Sullivan adds to a recent string of transfers that Mincey has brought into the program from local high schools. Most recently, the duo of All-SAC players Skylar Boshears and Lindsey Taylor from Furman, Taylor of which will play with Sullivan this coming fall. Prior to that, it was All-Americans Haris Price, Mika Wester and Kayla Marosites that highlighted the high-level talent to join the program.
Mincey and his coaching staff have produced stellar point guard play over the past several seasons with former Lady Eagle point guards Haris Price and Braelyn Wykle being First-Team All-American's at that position, both of whom rank top ten all-time in scoring at C-N.
The Lady Eagles are coming off a 24-10 season that included trips to the South Atlantic Conference championship and to the Sweet 16 and returns six of its top eight scorers from an offense that averaged the 10th most points per game nationally. Despite one of those departures being Braelyn Wykle, the school's all-time leading scorer and the fourth all-time leading scorer in DII women's basketball history, the return of All-SAC forward Lindsey Taylor and the addition of Jennifer Sullivan, have the Lady Eagles poised for another successful season in 2024-25.
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