VIDEO: Mike Mincey Interview

Carson-Newman Women's Basketball Game Notes

JEFFERSON CITY, Tenn. – Coming off of a nonconference victory over North Georgia Thursday evening, No. 21 Carson-Newman plays host to Newberry Saturday at 2 p.m. inside of Holt Fieldhouse in South Atlantic Conference action.

"I think they are just as talented," Carson-Newman coach Mike Mincey said of the Wolves. "Sean [Page] does a good job. They are well-coached. They left our game last year when we beat them and went on to win our conference tournament. There are several kids back from that particular team that know how to win, know how to win a championship. It's going to be a tough test for us in the SAC."

Carson-Newman (5-1, 0-1 SAC) has won three straight meetings with Newberry (2-4, 1-0 SAC) and leads the all-time series 28-18 including a pair of victories last season.

On senior day at Holt Fieldhouse, the Lady Eagles blew out Newberry 75-44 in the last meeting on February 28, 2015 holding the Wolves to 26.2 percent shooting from the floor. Taylor Peterson (Mount Juliet, Tenn.) led all scorers with 21 points and tied for a game-high with nine rebounds. Jecca Simerly (Talbott, Tenn.) had 17 points, six rebounds and four assists while Kailyn Brooks (Lafayette, Tenn.) finished with 11 points and eight assists.

"Every game is important," Mincey said. "You get into conference play. They know your style and that kind of thing. After that loss at LMU, that was a tough one to take to go 0-1 in conference play. As it stands right now we are tied for last in our league. We always have the philosophy of working from the bottom-up. Newberry is a tough opponent but we like how we are playing at home."

Newberry was the 2015 SAC Tournament Champions defeating the regular season champions, Anderson, in the title game. The same two schools met in the opening round of the NCAA Tournament with the Wolves being bounced from postseason action in a 69-57 loss.

Newberry's all-time leading scorer Haylee Lepaio graduated at the conclusion of the 2014-15 season leaving a vacancy in the post to replace the three-time first-team All-SAC pick.

Freshman center Meg Essex is looking to replace Lepaio and is second in the league this season in points per contest with 18.0 and leads the league with 10 total blocks on the year.

Returning from an injury suffered in the tournament game against Anderson, WBCA honorable mention All-American Samantha Creed is back in action. The senior guard is averaging 13.0 points per game this year in four games played after missing the first two contests of the year.

On the year Newberry is averaging 64.0 points per game ranking in the lower third in the nation and eighth in the conference despite being third in the league in field-goal percentage converting 42.8 percent from the floor. In two wins this year, the Wolves have scored 87 and 76 while scoring no more than 64 points in the four losses.

2014-15 All-Freshman team pick Nicola Handreck is second in the conference in assists per game averaging 4.3 on the year.

The game will be broadcast on the local airwaves as well as internationally on the World Wide Web beginning at 1:45 p.m. on the Eagle Sports Network. Local listeners can find the game on Mountain Country 106.3 WPFT-FM while every person in the world can watch on cneagles.com/live.

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