VIDEO: Chuck Benson Recaps Coker
VIDEO: Kaleb Wallace Recaps Coker
VIDEO: Luke Brenegan Recaps Coker
HARTSVILLE, S.C. – Five Eagles scored in double-figures to lead C-N to its first road victory of the season over Coker 77-56 at the DeLoach Center in the Palmetto State.
The victory also broke a four-game losing streak overall.
"To say that we were in need of a performance worthy of a win is an understatement," Carson-Newman coach Chuck Benson said, "… We've been very close multiple times. This team is so very much sort of figuring out things and finding its way and I'm happy for our guys."
Carson-Newman (8-14, 5-11 South Atlantic Conference) got 45 points from its bench compared to just 11 for the Cobras. Freshman Kaleb Wallace (Atlanta, Ga.) came off the pine and finished tied for the team lead in scoring with 15 points.
"We tried to make sure our warmups were hard, just make sure we win every aspect before the game," Wallace said. "Like, what we control: how we stretch, how we warm up, energy on the bench, things like that, just not worrying about the outcome."
Coker played a zone defense for the majority of the game in an attempt to take advantage of C-N's recent outside shooting woes.
"It was a group effort," Wallace said. "…We just wanted to make sure we didn't pass up any inside looks and we did that."
The Cobras zone spurred sensational C-N ball movement, tallying up to 16 assists for the team. Despite zipping the rock around, turnovers were to a minimum, just 13 total, which is below the team's season average.
Sophomore Luke Brenegan (Greenville, S.C.) also posted 15 points. The underclassmen poured in all of his points from beyond the arc, going 5-for-7 from beyond the long line.
Brenegan scored the first dozen of C-N's points to start the second half via four made shots from downtown. Three of those four came on a trio of consecutive possessions coming out of the locker room.
"We came out of a timeout and the collective thought was, 'let's ride his hand until it dries up,'" Benson said. "The guys were really trying to look for him and find him in those situations coming out of timeouts, trying to squeeze every bit of winning juice out of him as we could."
The Cobras (5-15, 4-12 South Atlantic Conference) failed to surpass the 30-point mark in either half. The team was led by Malcolm Kennedy who posted a game high 25 points on 7-for-19 shooting from the field.
Other than Kennedy, the only other Cobra in double-figures was Chandler Lindsey who finished with a dozen.
The three-ball wasn't dropping for Coker as the team made just seven shots on 26 attempts, a 27 percent clip.
It was the first time all season the Eagles had held a team under 60 points.
"We were all just talking, communicating, making multiple-effort plays," Brenegan said. "Flying by guys, we're flying back, rebounding, boxing out and going to get rebounds."
C-N ran lengthy lineups that featured big men Bryant Thomas (Charlotte, N.C.), Cam Andre (Kissimmee, Fla.) and Dima Bykov (Moscow, Russia) that served as strong protection at the rim.
"It totally hinders the offense's ability to get into the paint," Brenegan said. "They're very intimidated, it just slows everything down. Being able to block all those shots, you can really contest the three-ball knowing if you get beat you have someone back there behind you to block the ball."
The Eagles will next host Lenoir-Rhyne on Wednesday, Feb. 12 at 7:30 p.m. at Holt Fieldhouse. The game will air on cneagles.com/live and on the flagship station, 106.3 (WPFT-FM, Sevierville).
C-N will then host Catawba at 4 p.m. on Feb. 15.
"We're so much more self-focused, looking at ourselves and what we're dealing with," Benson said. "We're not focusing as much on the opponent. Having said that, we still taking our preparation and scouting very seriously and we've got to continue to create and build scout habits which we are doing. But, there's no question about it, home or away Lenoir-Rhyne and Catawba are two of the best teams in the league this season and we know we will get their best as we go into this February stretch where everybody is trying to position themselves for tournament play."
Be sure to keep up with the Eagles all season long on all of C-N's social media platforms and on cneagles.com.
