VIDEO: Chuck Benson Interview
MARS HILL, N.C. – There's a ton to unpack from Carson-Newman's (11-12, 5-8 South Atlantic Conference) 69-64 overtime loss at Mars Hill (7-15, 3-10 SAC) Wednesday night at Burt Stanford Arena.
Carson-Newman thought it had stolen a win at the end of regulation.
The Eagles had turned it over 21 times to offset the fact that they were holding Mars Hill to 33.2 percent shooting. Down 62-60 with 23 seconds left following twoendall Davis free throws, Carson-Newman worked a layup for Ren Dyer (Weaverville, N.C.) with 3.5 seconds left. Dyer missed it short, but a Lion tapped the rebound out of bounds, giving the Eagles a second chance.
Luke Brenegan (Greenville, S.C.) grabbed the in bounds pass dribbled to the right win and drilled what was called a three with .3 seconds left. Mars Hill threw the inbounds to Isayah Owens who flipped a desperation heave short from half court, and C-N begin to celebrate stealing a win on the road.
However, after a three-minute discussion, the officials reversed course, said that Brenegan had in fact hit a two, and Mars Hill had a second crack at a heave on the inbounds pass. Video does show that Brenegan's foot was on the line, however, it was the reversal after the game had concluded that frustrated head coach Chuck Benson.
"It was called a three on the court," Benson said. "We don't have monitor review and the officials did not step in and stop MHU from inbounding the ball and attempting a shot. It's game over. What the crew decided to do, was to me, a mistake. Period. The minute the ball was inbounded, it was game over. It was called a three, we don't have review, we're breating a sigh of relief on the bus right now going home."
In overtime, Carson-Newman was undone by what hampered it in regulation. The Eagles turned it over four times in the overtime session, made one shot and went the final 3:26 of the overtime session without scoring. A jumper by Jones with 3:10 left in the OT session would be strong enough for MHU to hold on. The Eagles misfired on their final four shots of the period. Mars Hill didn't make a shot from the field after Jones free-throw line J.
Carson-Newman did enough defensively to pick up a win. The Eagles limited the Lions to 33.8 percent shooting and outrebounded them 46-36. However, Carson-Newman turned it over 25 times, a season high and the most since giving it up 27 times to one of Dave Davis' high-tempo pressing teams at Newberry on Dec. 3, 2016 (Carson-Newman won that game in a track meet 116-94).
"I really don't have anything to say about the turnovers, that's it," Benson said. "We don't play winning basketball enough and that is the bottom line. We get what we deserve. This is what fans don't ever wanna hear and here's the reality. Coaches coach and players play. Coaches don't play and players don't coach.
"When it's time to play, guys get to make decisions and we make too many poor decisions. We put ourselves in too many bad situations. Just like tonight, was there a mistake made at the end of regulation that cost us, yeah. But when you have 25 turnovers, you're going to lose anyway. Our guys have got to decide if they are individually going to play this game in a way that they value the ball. There are significant consequences to playing the game the way that we have played, and that's the reality."
Those figures led to Mars Hill attempting a whopping 30 more shot attempts than Carson-Newman. The Lions were 25-of-74 from the field, while Carson-Newman knocked down 18-of-44 shots. Carson-Newman did not make a two-point basket the entirety of the first half in taking a 29-20 lead into the halftime lockerroom.
The 44 shot attempts are the second fewest in a game this season by the Eagles. C-N took 42 shots in a low possession game against Lenoir-Rhyne.
Carson-Newman had four players score in double digits. Ren Dyer (Weaverville, N.C.) chased an ignominious triple double with 17 points, seven boards and seven turnovers.
Bryant Thomas added in a double-double with 13 points and 11 boards. Nick Brenegan (Greenville, S.C.) and Luke Brenegan (Greenville, S.C.) had 12 and 10, respectively.
Kory Davis led Mars Hill with 17 points on 6-of-22 shooting. Jackson Reid followed with 11 points. Jones had a 10-point, 10-rebound double-double.
Carson-Newman returns home to face Anderson on Saturday at 4 p.m. Coverage on the Eagle Sports Network begins at 3:45 with the AEC Countdown to Tipoff on Mountain Talk 106.3 (WPFT-FM, Sevierville) and online at cneagles.com/live. A paid video stream is available through FloSports at cneagles.com/FloMBB.
