VIDEO: Kailyn Brooks Interview
JEFFERSON CITY, Tenn. – Carson-Newman snapped a two-game losing streak to Lenoir-Rhyne Satruday afternoon at Holt Fieldhouse as the Lady Eagles used a dominating first quarter to defeat the Bears 82-75 Saturday afternoon.
"We are a good scoring team," Carson-Newman coach Mike Mincey said. "It was good to come out and get going early and get the tempo right. We shot it really well. A lot of things went well for us as we put 31 on the board to their 10. I told them in the locker room that that 21-point cushion after the first quarter won us the basketball game."
With the win, Carson-Newman (16-8, 13-5) picks up a victory inside of the friendly confines against Lenoir-Rhyne (15-9, 11-7) for the third straight season.
After C-N led 7-6 in the early portions of the first stanza, the Lady Eagles scored 24 of the final 28 points to hold a 31-10 lead after a period. Lenoir-Rhyne went the final 5:28 of the first frame without a point missing seven straight field goals as Carson-Newman closed out the quarter on a 16-0 run. Mincey's group made all seven foul shots it attempted and went 11-for-18 from the field while scoring 11 points off of eight L-R giveaways.
The home team was ahead by 18 at 35-17 when C-N went on a scoring drought that spanned just shy of three minutes as the visitors scored eight unanswered points. Overall, the Bears made 58 percent of their shots in the second quarter and went 6-for-8 from the free-throw line to outscore the Lady Eagles by six and pull within 15 at the break at 45-30.
Nine players scored for Carson-Newman in the first half with no one reaching double figures in the first 20 minutes of play. Madi Suddreth led the Bears with six points, six rebounds and three assists.
The Lady Eagles went ahead 53-35 only to see a 7-0 spurt from the Bears cut the deficit to 11 with just over five minutes to play in the third quarter. Carson-Newman closed the quarter on a 7-0 run in the final minute to expand the advantage to 65-48 entering the fourth.
The lead ballooned to 20 points at 72-52 with 7:37 to play in the contest when the Bears rattled off a 14-3 run over nearly four minutes to pull within nine at 75-66. Lenoir-Rhyne went 11-for-17 from the field in the fourth quarter but the lead was insurmountable as C-N handed L-R its fifth straight road loss.
Sophomore Mika Wester (Newport, Tenn.) tied for the game-high with 20 points coupled with five rebounds in the game. Senior Kailyn Brooks (Lafayette, Tenn.) finished with 13 points, four steals and five assists. Katie Stubblefield (Alcoa, Tenn.) and Ashton Wykle (Greeneville, Tenn.) added 12 and 11 respectively. Stubblefield added seven boards in 20 minutes.
"We knew their defense was really good," Brooks said. "They are one of the best in the conference if not the best. We knew we had to come out and get good shots today. We couldn't have another half like we did at their place where we only scored 16 points so we were ready for it."
Four Bears ended the day with double-digit scoring efforts led by Chelsey Romero's 20. Brooks Robinson and Alecia Bell each had 15 points and five rebounds. Suddreth notched 14 points, seven rebounds and four assists.
The Lady Eagles play their final two road games of the season next week beginning with a short visit to Tusculum Wednesday night at 6 p.m. The Eagle Sports Network will be on site providing the play-by-play coverage on Mountain Country 106.3 WPFT-FM and cneagles.com/live starting at 5:45 p.m. with "The Appalachian Electric Cooperative Countdown to Tip-Off".
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