JEFFERSON CITY, Tenn. - The Carson-Newman Lady Eagles basketball team (6-2, 1-1 South Atlantic Conference) will play their first game since the Christmas holiday break, welcoming in the Virginia Intermont Lady Cobras (6-8, 1-1 Appalachian Athletic Conference) to Holt Fieldhouse on Sunday evening at 6 p.m.

The Lady Eagles are coming off their first loss in conference play, falling to Lenoir-Rhyne 72-59 in Hickory, N.C., on Dec. 15.

"We've been pleased with our practices the past three days," said Carson-Newman head coach Mike Mincey.

The Lady Eagles won six straight games prior to the loss at Lenoir-Rhyne, yet Mincey doesn't believe that the setback was a "wake-up call" for Carson-Newman.

"I don't think at any point we had gotten the 'big head' or thought that we were better than we actually were," said Mincey. "I think they all knew we were fortunate at times to win some of those six games that we did win. It was just a bummer to go into Christmas break with a loss, but you've got to take some losses occasionally and luckily for us it was on the road and not at home."

Carson-Newman continues to be led in scoring by freshman Tatum Burstrom (Maryville, Tenn.). She is averaging 13.5 points per game and led the Lady Eagles with 16 points against Lenoir-Rhyne in the last game. Also averaging double-digit points is junior Shyra Brown (Cleveland, Tenn.) with her 10.5 points per contest, and she leads the team by averaging 7.1 rebounds per game.

Virginia Intermont is 6-8 this season and has lost its last three games, with the most recent loss on Dec. 11 against Lees-McRae. The Lady Cobras were picked to finish fifth in the Appalachian Athletic Conference preseason poll, and are led in scoring by Rainey Story who averages 14.4 points per game.

"Virginia Intermont has several local players," said Mincey. "We went up there last year and they played us pretty tough. The run a 1-3-1 zone and we didn't get a lot of shots to go down from the perimeter and we didn't get a whole lot of stuff inside either. Hopefully we'll have a much better performance, and it's going to be a challenging game for us. Hopefully we can get people to buy in and play well tomorrow and hopefully things will go our way."

Coverage of the game is available on the Coca-Cola Eagle Sports Network, beginning with the Farm Bureau Countdown to Tipoff at 5:45 p.m. and the broadcast is also available on www.cneagles.com.