C-N Women's Basketball Game Notes
JEFFERSON CITY, Tenn. – Kailyn Brooks, Kaitlyn Cupples and Carly Pippin will be honored in a Senior Day ceremony Saturday afternoon at Holt Fieldhouse as Carson-Newman hosts Coker in the 2016-17 regular season finale.
The game will be the final regular season home game for the trio but the Lady Eagles have clinched a home game in the South Atlantic Conference quarterfinals slated for 6 p.m. Wednesday evening.
"Every senior group that you are able to recruit, they trusted you as a coach to develop them as players and as people," Carson-Newman coach Mike Mincey said. "They have all stayed true to the process and what we want to try to accomplish. They are all going to graduate which is the most important thing. They have all been productive members of our team and helped the young kids learn the Carson-Newman way. I'm glad all three made the decision to come here. They are leaving the program better than where they found it."
Brooks has produced on the best overall careers for any Lady Eagle in history as she ranks 12th in school history in points scored with 1,152 and sits in third place on the program's all-time three-pointers list with 198. At Wingate on Feb. 18, the senior made her 73rd three-pointer of the season to break Ashley Tipton's record for most converted triples in a season. Her current mark stands at 75. That number ranks 18th in the nation. With 316 assists, Brooks is eighth on the school's career list.
The 2015-16 honorable mention All-SAC performer has recorded 58 games in double figures with 30 contests with at least three long range jumpers and 53 games with at least three assists. As a senior, the guard leads the conference in assist-to-turnover ratio at 2.13, ranks fourth in assists per game at 3.9 and is eighth in scoring at 14 per game.
Cupples was the South Atlantic Conference's Freshman of the Year in 2013-14 to go along with All-Freshman Team honors and a 2014 SAC All-Tournament Team selection. The Clinton, Tenn. native has 116 games played in her career with 51 starts posting 771 career points and 600 career rebounds. The forward has registered 129 blocks in her career to rank third in school history in the category just 14 behind Karen Morton for second place on the school's all-time list.
On top of her success on the floor, Cupples was named a nominee for The Women's Basketball Coaches Association (WBCA) Allstate Insurance Company Good Works Team in December for an extensive list of community service and mission trips.
Pippin has played in 58 games since arriving at Mossy Creek in 2012. This season has been the most productive for the Sevierville, Tenn. native as she has scored 61 points and has 29 rebounds. In 2016-17, the guard has scored in double figures twice scoring 10 points with six rebounds at Mars Hill on New Year's Eve. On Jan. 11 at Brevard, Pippin posted a career-high 11 points making a trio of three-pointers.
Saturday is just the ninth all-time meeting between C-N and Coker since the two began playing in 2012 as the Lady Eagles hold a 6-2 lead while winning six of the last seven times the two squads have met on the hardwood.
In 38 home finales in the history of the program, C-N sports a 23-15 record but the team has won just one of its last three, a 75-44 pounding of Newberry on Feb. 28, 2015.
The first meeting this season saw Coker go scoreless for 8:13 of the second quarter as the Lady Eagles blew out the Cobras 85-47 at the DeLoach Center on Jan. 14.
Carson-Newman forced 30 turnovers, the second most on the year, converting the Coker miscues in 31 points at the other end of the floor while the Lady Eagles turned the ball over just nine times, the third fewest this season by Mincey's team.
Brooks led all scorers with 14 points on the day as she added three assists and three rebounds. Smith added 13 points and eight rebounds and Wester ended the game with 13 points, four rebounds and four assists.
Kendra Lambert led the Cobras with 12 points and Iresha Cooper added 11 points and seven rebounds.
Coker enters the weekend having lost 10 of its last 13 games. The Cobras hold a 2-9 record in road games in 2016-17 having lost five straight. The last victory away from home for the team came on Jan. 9 at Mars Hill in a 76-58 triumph.
Coach Shannon Johnson's team relies on shots inside of three-point arc ranking eighth in the SAC in field-goal percentage at 40 despite posting the worst three-point percentage of any team in the league at 25, 292nd in Division II. Her unit makes just 2.8 triples per game on the year making more than five just three times in 26 outings.
Only 11 teams in the nation average more giveaways in 2016-17 than Coker as the group is averaging 21 turnovers per game. The Cobras have gone five straight games without 20 or more turnovers, their longest streak of the year as they have 15 games with at least that amount on the year.
Cooper is the team's leader in scoring registering 12 per night while leading the conference and ranking 20th in the country in field-goal percentage at 55.
Saturday's matinee can be heard on Mountain Country 106.3 WPFT-FM with video and audio streams available on cneagles.com/live. "The Appalachian Electric Cooperative Countdown to Tip-Off" gets the ball rolling starting at 1:45 p.m. on the Eagle Sports Network.
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