JEFFERSON CITY, Tenn. – A modest two-game South Atlantic Conference road trip begins Saturday afternoon at 2 p.m. for Carson-Newman as the Lady Eagles head to Charlotte to take on a scuffling Queens unit that has one of the longest conference losing streaks in the country.
"I think they are a pretty good basketball team," Carson-Newman coach Mike Mincey said. "They are pretty young. They have two Tennessee natives that are second and third on the team in scoring right now. I have seen both of those guys play and I know they are capable players. I think they are slowly getting it turned around. I think going over there is a challenge. Anything for us right now is a challenge."
After holding a lead for all but 18:34 out of 100 minutes during a five-game winning streak, Carson-Newman (11-4, 4-3) trailed for 37:49 in a loss to 24th-ranked Anderson on Wednesday. The team has trailed for the majority of the game in three of its four setbacks this year and has trailed for 168:09 this season after being behind for a total of 188:34 a year ago.
Junior guard Kayla Marosites (Elizabethton, Tenn.) ranks second in the country with 10 double-doubles on the season thanks to a string of six straight games with one. It has tied the longest span by a Lady Eagles this century with Shari Buford's run from Jan. 23 to Feb. 10, 2010.
Saturday is the 11th installment of the C-N and Queens (5-7, 0-6) series as the Lady Eagles have won each of the last eight outings, the longest active winning streak against a SAC school, after dropping the first two games played in 2014 as the club won by 45 and 46 in the two affairs.
Of those eight victories, all but one have come by double figures, a seven-point game at in the Queen City on Feb. 23, 2015. The average margin of victory has been 25 points.
The most recent outing between the two clubs came on Feb. 10, 2018 at Mossy Creek where Carson-Newman set a 25-year-old shooting record by connecting on 68 percent of its shots and going 17-for-26 from long distance to break the efficiency mark.
Briana Smith (Nashville, Tenn.) had two of her best games of the 2017-18 season against the Royals putting up 23 and 19 points respectively going a combined 15-for-18 from the floor. Kelci Marosites (Elizabethton, Tenn.) had a career day in the home outing with 19 points going 5-for-7 from deep.
Queens is one of 30 teams in the nation that have yet to win a conference contest running its losing streak to 19 consecutive setbacks to SAC schools, the sixth-longest active skid in Division II. Ohio Valley's mark off 44 in-row against Great Midwest Athletic Conference teams is the longest string. The last triumph in a league affair for the Royals came on Jan. 6, 2018 at Mars Hill, 65-62.
It has not been a warm welcome to the SAC since Queens joined the conference in 2013-14 as the program is 18-96 since becoming a member with the best campaign coming in the first year with a 6-16 tally. The Royals are three for their last 39 since opening the 2016-17 season 3-3.
One area where Sarah Jansen's team does excel is forcing turnovers ranking 25th in the country with 22 turnovers forced per game. Despite being second in the conference in free-throw attempts, it is shooting 64 percent to rank 253rd nationally.
The Royals are fairly balanced on the offense with four players averaging between 10 and 13 points per game. Lade Adepoju leads the group with 13.2 on average who is also fourth in the SAC in rebounding at 8.3 per night. She had 20 points in the last meeting with 10 coming in mop-up time in the fourth quarter.
Defensively, the unit has struggled allowing 79 points per game, 259th in the nation, and being outrebounded by an average of seven caroms per night, 266th. Foes are shooting 41 percent from the field.
Fans can listen to the game on 106.3 WPFT-FM Mountain Country and cneagles.com/live starting at 5:45 p.m. with "The Appalachian Electric Cooperative Countdown to Tip-Off" on the Eagle Sports Network.
- CN -
