VIDEO: 2024 Anderson Highlights
VIDEO: Full game from February 2024 v. Anderson
JEFFERSON CITY, Tenn. – The South Atlantic Conference's second-highest scoring offense will run into the lowest scoring defense when 21st-ranked Carson-Newman (7-2, 3-1 SAC) arrives at the Abney Athletic Center for a 4 p.m. tip Saturday with Anderson (5-1, 2-1 SAC).
The Eagles average 90.9 points per game, second in the league and 19th nationally. Meanwhile, Anderson allows a league-best 71.2 points per game (that figure is 90th nationally, but the Eagles and Trojans play in the SAC, which has five teams in the top 40 nationally all averaging more than 85 points per game).
"They are the best defensive team in our league, according to the data," head men's basketball coach Chuck Benson said. "We've got to be efficient and accurate in our execution, and we'll have to defend because they have capable shot makers. It'll be a challenge as it always is to go to the Abney Center. Jimmie Williams has done a good job getting that group ready and there's a reason why they are 5-1 to start this season."
Senior shooting guard Nick Brenegan has been on a tear from beyond the arc. The eighth member of Carson-Newman's 200-three club, Brenegan is ninth in the country and first in the SAC with 27 threes made this season. Brenegan has buried a triple in 22 consecutive games, but has made a minimum of three threes in six consecutive games. Brenegan has made three threes in seven straight games one other time in his career (from Nov. 27 - Dec. 30, 2023).
Carson-Newman is clicking into the offensive form in which it spent much of the 2023-24 season. The Eagles have been hyper efficient to begin the year, averaging 53.5 percent shooting, a figure that is eighth nationally. Carson-Newman is second in effective field goal perentage at .623. C-N has shot better than 50 percent from the field in its last eight games - the longest such streak under head coach Chuck Benson. C-N's second-longest streak came in 2017-18 when it made 50 percent or better of its shots in seven straight games to start the season.
Jack Browder has been dominant on the glass to start his junior campaign. Browder is sixth in the country and tops in the league in total rebounds with 76. It's helped pave the way for him to tally double-double after double-double. He has four on the year and in two of his last four games. Browder is fifth in the nation with his quartet of double-doubles. Browder leads the SAC in double-doubles.
Anderson has the South Atlantic Conference's top scoring defense. The Trojans give up 71.2 points per game in the points happy SAC. AU has limited all but Mars Hill (its lone loss of the year) under 80 points. No team has shot better than 50 percent from the field on AU, and only MHU has drilled double-digit threes (11) on the conference's second-best three-point percentage defense (28.9).
Carson-Newman has shot better than 50 percent from the field in three straight halves of basketball against AU. C-N shot 55.0 and 61.3 percent from the field in sweeping last season's series with AU. Conversely, Anderson has shot 58 percent from the field in its last two second halves against C-N. The Trojans scored 71 in a 103-101 loss to C-N in Holt Fieldhouse last season in which they nearly erased a 27-point deficit.
Anderson point guard AJ Wright is seocnd in the SAC with 16 steals. He had a career-best five against Carson-Newman last season in the meeting in Holt Fieldhouse. He also handed out 12 assists that day against the Eagles, one of two double-digit assist days he had last year.
C-N has nationally ranked for a third consecutive week, the first time that's happened since January 1965 (NABC Poll).
Tipoff between the Eagles and Trojans is slated for 4 p.m. Saturday. Coverage on the Eagle Sports Network begins at 3:45 p.m. with then AEC Countdown to Tipoff son Mix 105.5 (WSEV-FM, Sevierville) and online at cneagles.com/live.
