DAHLONEGA, Ga. – Facing off against one quarter of the Southeast Region field, 20th-ranked Carson-Newman travels to the North Georgia classic to tangle with Clayton State on Friday and the reigning region champions, No. 15 North Georgia, on Saturday. Tip-off for both contests are slated for 3:30 p.m.
"It's two different looks," Carson-Newman coach Mike Mincey said. "This will be our second and third NCAA Tournament teams that we face this young into the season. We are going to get exposed and challenged early to see what kind of team we are made of especially playing some inexperienced players.
"Clayton is very physical and athletic. They are up-tempo but it's more about their pressure on the defensive side more than anything. Then you turn around and play North Georgia which is obviously very experienced. They have been in the regional championship game the last two years and won the Peach Belt two years in a row. That's a sign of a good program. I love that we are going to play one team one night that is going to play a certain way and another team the next night that will be a completely different environment."
Friday afternoon marks the ninth all-time meeting between Carson-Newman (4-0) and Clayton State (3-2) with each team holding four wins. Four of the outings have been decided by two points or less while three of the contests have come in the NCAA Tournament.
The last four tussles between the two programs have been decided by a total of 10 points. The Lady Eagles have won the last two affairs including a 90-86 triumph at Holt Fieldhouse last year in an outing where the teams combined for 51 fouls and 59 free-throw attempts.
Scoring 60 points after halftime, C-N was led by 31 points from Haris Price who netted 27 in the second half tying the program record for free throws in a game going 14-for-14 at the charity stripe. Kelci Marosites (Elizabethton, Tenn.) stuffed the stat sheet off of the bench with 13 points, nine rebounds and four steals. Addison Byrd (Nashville, Tenn.) was the only other player in double figures with 12 points on five of eight shooting.
Clayton State has challenged itself to begin the year with three South Atlantic Conference teams and winning its last two games in the Sunshine State against Rollins and Florida Tech. The Lakers do not play a home game until Dec. 14 when it hosts Lander.
Coach Kaleena Coleman's team frequents the free-throw line averaging 24 attempts per game this year ranking fourth in the country with 91 made foul shots shooting 75 percent as a team. Seven players have attempted at least 10. The team is committing 20 fouls per night itself ranking 222nd nationally.
Rebounding has been an issue this year with the Lakers posting 31 boards per night, the 17th-fewest in Division II being outrebounded by an average of nine per night. They make up for it with their pressure forcing 21 turnovers per game.
Taneria Wilson, a 2018-19 third-team All-Peach Belt pick, is the team's leading scorer with 12 points per game as one of three double-figure scorers. She was Clayton State's leading scorer against the Lady Eagles a year ago with 26 points off of the bench going 11-for-19 from the field. In 2019, Wilson ranks fourth in the nation with 18 steals taking 73 shots, the 18th-highest amount in the country.
Saturday afternoon will be a meeting of each of the last two region champions as Carson-Newman plays North Georgia (4-0) for the 13th time holding an 8-4 lead in the series. The Lady Eagles have won seven of the last eight and each of the last two played in Dahlonega. The Nighthawks lone win in that stretch came on Dec. 7, 2016, a 68-59 victory.
It will be the third straight meeting that the two teams are both ranked entering the contest but the first where North Georgia is the higher ranked team. The Lady Eagles walked out of the Convocation Center with a 91-78 win last year behind 62 percent shooting in the second half with five players finishing in double figures and all but seven points coming from the starting five.
Coach Buffie Burson's team has won 14 straight regular season games since losing 75-61 at Lander on Jan. 30, 2019. Since the start of the 2013-14 season, North Georgia is 83-14 at home losing no more than three times in one year.
The Nighthawks are once again one of the premiere rebounding teams in the nation posting the second-highest rebounding margin in Division II with a plus-22 clip. The team ranks 19th in both field-goal percentage, 48.5, and field-goal percentage defense, 31.7.
Julianne Sutton, Kyra Davis and Abbie Franklin are averaging 40 points per game as the three double-digit scorers on the roster. Between the trio, they are shooting 58 percent from the field.
There are two areas that North Georgia has not exceled early in the campaign, turnovers and free-throw shooting where the team is making 63 percent. The Nighthawks are committing 19 turnovers per game while forcing the 12th-fewest in America with less than a dozen.
Both affairs will be air on 106.3 (WPFT-FM) with an audio stream on cneagles.com/live starting 15 minutes prior to the opening tap. Follow @CNathletics for the latest news and notes for the weekend.
