KNOXVILLE, Tenn. – Tennessee shot 53 percent in the second half while holding Carson-Newman to 26 percent shooting to outscore the Lady Eagles 54-26 in the final 20 minutes to take a 95-56 victory Monday night at Thompson-Boling Arena.
"We didn't shoot it really well but to find ourselves down 41-30 at the half that was a bright spot, maybe the only one," Carson-Newman coach Mike Mincey said. "I'm disappointed in our performance from the second half. It was a sloppy game. We allowed Tennessee to get way too many easy looks. At times, I felt like we looked disinterested."
Tennessee made seven of its first nine shots in the game to take a 16-7 lead at the first media timeout. The Lady Volunteers did not make a huge run in the frame but shot 63 percent overall while holding C-N to 7-for-20 shooting.
In the second quarter, the home team saw the lead balloon to 35-18 when the Lady Eagles used an 8-2 spurt to pull within 11 at 37-26. Carson-Newman went without a field goal in the final 4:28 of the first half but went 7-for-8 at the charity stripe to keep the deficit 11 at 41-30.
In the opening 20 minutes, Tennessee made 53 percent, 18-for-34, of its shots while holding Carson-Newman to 10 of 30 shooting. Diamond Deshields led all players with 16 points and six rebounds. The Lady Eagles were led by senior Kailyn Brooks (Lafayette, Tenn.) and sophomore Briana Smith (Nashville, Tenn.) with nine points each.
The third quarter saw Carson-Newman miss its first six field-goal attempts and Tennessee start the frame on a 7-0 run before sophomore Mika Wester (Newport, Tenn.) made a pair of foul shots. The Lady Eagles failed to score in the final 3:35 of the stanza watching the Lady Vols score 15 unanswered to end the quarter and take a 71-39 lead to the fourth.
The fourth quarter had a frenetic pace as Tennessee used a 7-0 run to take an 84-45 lead before cruising to the final margin of 39 points.
Redshirt-junior Katie Stubblefield (Alcoa, Tenn.) led the way for C-N with 15 points and six rebounds while Smith finished with 12 points.
Deshields finished the night with 24 points and 10 rebounds as one of five players to finish in double figures. Mercedes Russell added 20 points, seven rebounds and four assists.
Jamie Nared had 17 points and eight rebounds while Alexa Middleton and Meme Jackson each added 10 points.
"Our expectations are a little bit higher when we play North Carolina and Tennessee," Mincey said. "We liked where we were at with an 11-point deficit at the half. We felt like we should have been within 30 at the end of the game."
The Lady Eagles begin their regular season this weekend in Harrogate, Tenn. in the South Atlantic Conference/Peach Belt Conference Challenge. Action begins Friday night at 6 p.m. as C-N challenges USC Aiken. Pregame coverage begins at 5:45 p.m. with The Appalachian Electric Cooperative Countdown to Tip-Off on cneagles.com/live or 106.3 WPFT-FM Mountain Country on the Eagle Sports Network.
- CN -
