Carson-Newman Women's Basketball Game Notes

JEFFERSON CITY, Tenn. - Carson-Newman travels to the Palmetto State to challenge 11^th-ranked Anderson (S.C.) Wednesday evening for a 6 p.m. tip-off looking for its first road win over a ranked team in six seasons.

"I think they play hard," Carson-Newman coach Mike Mincey said. "I've told our team they are a championship-caliber team with kids that have won a lot of games. They are going to be very stingy [defensively]. I think it's going to be key is not so much how well we stop them but we've got to be able to score to stay with them."

Carson-Newman (12-4, 6-4 South Atlantic Conference) is looking for its first road victory over a ranked team since Dec. 12, 2009 at eighth-ranked Clayton State. Assistant coach Ashley Kyle converted three free throws with 0.4 seconds remaining in the game to pull off the 65-62 upset.

The Lady Eagles topped sixth-ranked Columbus State 70-68 at Holt Fieldhouse on Nov. 21, 2014 earlier this season. With a win Wednesday, it would be the first time since 2011-12 that Carson-Newman defeated two ranked teams in a season. The Lady Eagles knocked off No. 12 Delta State 54-48 on Nov. 26 and on the next day topped No. 15 Lander 88-82 in overtime.

The 15th meeting between Carson-Newman and Anderson (12-1, 10-0 SAC) is slated for Wednesday as the two programs have split the first 14 decisions. Anderson enters the midweek battle having won four of the last five meetings including a sweep in 2014-15.

The most recent meeting at Anderson saw the conference's player of the year, Sierra Simpson, hit a 15-foot jumper with 0.6 seconds remaining in the game to push the Trojans past the Lady Eagles 73-71. Carson-Newman shot 57 percent from the floor in the game as forward Taylor Peterson (Mount Juliet, Tenn.) finished with a career-high 21 points and seven rebounds on the night.

Carson-Newman has not won on Anderson's home floor since Feb. 25, 2012, a string of three straight losses. The Lady Eagles won 57-48 as Zoriah Williams tallied 11 points and 10 rebounds for C-N.

Anderson has won 14 straight SAC home games with its last loss in the friendly confines coming on Jan. 3, 2015 when Catawba took a 74-60 victory over the Trojans. In the three years with Jimmy Garrity as the head coach, Anderson is 28-6 on its home floor.

The lone loss this season for the Trojans came on Dec. 31, 2015 on their home floor suffering a 63-49 setback to eighth-ranked Limestone. At the time it snapped a string of 22 straight wins at the Abney Athletic Center.

Anderson is one of the top defensive teams in the nation yielding a 34.2 percent field-goal percentage by opponents this season, first in the SAC and 14th at the Division II level. The Trojans are conceeding a league-best 59.5 points per game. Alexis Dillard has 32 blocked shots this season leading a team that averages 4.5 rejections per game, 25th nationally.

Offensively, the Trojans shoot 42 percent as a team, fourth-best in the league this season while being in the middle of the pack in three-pointers made per game with 5.7.

Anderson has been turnover-prone this season averaging 17.7 giveaways per game this season, seventh in the SAC and 201st in the country.

Senior forward Jennifer Monroe is putting together a conference Player of the Year campaign averaging nearly a double-double this season with 15.0 points per game and 9.8 rebounds per night. The two-time player of the week shoots the ball at 51-percent clip, tops in the league.

The contest will be broadcast on Mountain Country 106.3 WPFT-FM and on cneagles.com/live beginning at 5:45 p.m. with broadcast coverage starting with The Appalachian Electric Cooperative Countdown to Tip-Off on the Eagle Sports Network.

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