BRISTOL, Tenn. – After toppling King 111-82 on Wednesday night, Carson-Newman gets the same opponent Saturday at 3 p.m. from the Student Center Complex looking to build off of its best scoring effort in two seasons taking on the Tornado on the Tennessee-Virginia boarder.
"When you build a lead, it's much easier to shoot than when you are coming from behind," Carson-Newman coach Mike Mincey said. "That's why you saw some good scoring. They cut it to 19 at one point. We were efficient again in the fourth quarter and next thing you know we built a 30-point lead again. I think we have that capability but we were at home. You aren't going to shoot as well on the road so we will probably have to do a little better job on the defensive end."
Carson-Newman (3-0) plays a team in back-to-back contests for the first time since the 2009-10 season when the unit reached the region semifinals. The Lady Eagles played at Wingate on Feb. 27 in the regular-season finale before taking on the Bulldogs at home in the South Atlantic Conference Quarterfinals on March. C-N won both affairs by eight and four respectively.
The regular season and postseason combo has occurred three times while the dueling regular-season affairs has happened twice. C-N lost to Lincoln Memorial in two straight affairs on Dec. 5-14, 1995 while the Lady Eagles beat Tusculum on Feb. 2-4, 1985.
Relive all 2⃣7⃣ points and 2⃣2⃣ rebounds from @KaylaMarosites's record-breaking evening for @CNwbasketball. pic.twitter.com/BN4kP7E0Vn
— Carson-Newman Athletics (@CNathletics) November 14, 2019
The Orange and Blue have dominated the series winning all 22 meetings. If you subtract a pair of blowouts in the 1980s, four of the last six trips to Bristol have been decided by single digits. During the Elite Eight season, the team won by 28 but the other five contests have had an average differential of eight points.
While Mincey's crew has dropped triple digits in the last three home affairs with King (1-2), C-N is posting an average of 76 points per game in his tenure when playing on the road.
In nine seasons at the helm, the mentor has guided the school to a 45-8 record in November that includes a 17-1 tally since the start of the 2017-18 season. The lone blemish in that stretch came on the road last season in an 88-83 loss to Columbus State. During that period, the Lady Eagles are averaging 95 points per game and winning by 21 points per outing.
Coach Josh Thompson is seeking help for reigning Conference Carolinas Freshman of the Year, Trinity Lee. The sophomore has scored over a quarter of the team's points shooting 61 percent from the field and making 10 of the team's 26 triples. The rest of the roster is shooting 33 percent from the field. Lee had two 20-point efforts last year while she has three this season through three outings. In two losses, the guard is 15-for-26 with the rest of the roster shooting 32 percent.
Over the last two losses, King has yielded 28 three-pointers giving up three quarters where the opponent shot at least 58 percent from the field. Two of those came from the Lady Eagles Wednesday night when C-N went 30-for-44 from the floor in the first and fourth frames.
Saturday's tilt will air on locally on radio on 106.3 (WPFT-FM) starting 15 minutes prior to the opening tap with "The AEC Countdown to Tip-Off" on the Eagle Sports Network. Fans out of the area can access the audio stream on cneagles.com/live.
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