BELMONT, N.C. – Despite an 11-2 scoring run in the final five and half minutes of the game, Carson-Newman (10-4) dropped its first road contest of the season, falling in overtime to Belmont Abbey, 72-64 Saturday evening inside the Wheeler Center.
The Eagles had their seven-game road winning streak snapped in the eight-point loss. The loss is the first time C-N has lost back-to-back games this season.
"We can't handle defensive pressure, period," Carson-Newman men's basketball coach Chuck Benson said. "We've lost four games this year, three of them against the same exact script. I'm telling you how to beat Carson-Newman, just pressure us. We don't have people that are going to take care of the basketball in those situations. Those first half turnovers (15), you can't do that and win games. There are certain things that must be in place in order to win games, and on the road in particular. When you do what we did with the basketball today, we're going to lose. When turnovers are the problem, it really limits what we can do. We fought and clawed hard to get back into it, it's just unfortunate that, that's where we are with a veteran crew."
C-N committed 15 of its 19 turnovers in the first half. The 19 C-N turnovers were the second most in a game this season. Those turnovers led to 21 Belmont Abbey points.
The Eagles got off to a quick start, scoring the first nine points of the game. Thanks to the quick start, C-N continued to build off that strong start and gained its biggest lead of the contest at 18-7 with 13:31 left in the first half. Turnovers began to pile up in the first half, leading to buckets for Belmont Abbey on the other end. The Crusaders outscored the Eagles 28-10 in the final 13 minutes of the first half to take a seven-point lead into the locker room.
Both teams traded buckets for the first seven or so minutes of the second half, before a John Zhao three-point field goal brought the Eagles to within three points at the 12:03 mark. The Crusaders tied their largest lead of nine, with 5:31 left in the contest.
C-N mounted a comeback on the shoulders of the Brenegan brothers. Luke Brenegan (Greenville, S.C) scored all 16 of his points in the second half, including nine of them during an 11-2 scoring run to force the game into OT. With the shot clock expiring, Luke banked in a deep three-pointer to force overtime. Nick Brenegan (Greenville, S.C) scored the other two points during the late surge.
It's the first time this season the Eagles played an overtime game, and 12th overtime game under Coach Benson.
Luke Brenegan drilled his fourth three-pointer of the game to help tie the game at the 3:11 mark of the overtime period. C-N never scored again in overtime, as the Crusaders finished the overtime period on an 8-0 scoring run to win 72-64.
John Zhao (Sevierville, Tenn) was the only other Eagle in double figures, scoring 10 points and nailing three, three-point field goals.
Sopohmore Ben Beeker (Hendersonville, N.C) got his first career start in place of the injured Bryant Thomas (Charlotte, N.C). Beeker scored four points and grabbed two rebounds.
Mason Taylor led the Crusaders in scoring with 24 points on 9 of 16 shooting. Wade Jackson and Blake Hadley also scored in double-figures for Belmont Abbey.
C-N gets three days off, before returning to the floor in Harrogate, Tennessee for a matchup against top ten Lincoln Memorial.
Tipoff between the Eagles and Railsplitters is set for 4 p.m. Saturday. Coverage on the Eagle Sports Network begins at 3:45 p.m. with the AEC Countdown to Tipoff on Mountain Talk 106.3 (WPFT-FM, Sevierville) and online at cneagles.com/live.
