JEFFERSON CITY, Tenn. – Mike Mincey is aiming to become Carson-Newman's all-time South Atlantic Conference wins leader when the Lady Eagles face off against Mars Hill Wednesday evening at 5:30 from the cozy confines of Holt Fieldhouse.
The nine-year veteran matched Eddie Carter's program lead with his 107th in a 101-71 win over Coker on Saturday. Only five coaches in the history of the league have collected more as Mincey is second among active mentors. He nabbed his 100th SAC victory in the last meeting with Mars Hill (2-8, 0-4).
One area that C-N is looking to improve is defensively as the team has yielded at least a 50 percent clip in eight of the last 12 quarters on the floor. Overall, teams are shooting 41 percent against the Lady Eagles placing the unit 10th in the conference and 214th nationally.
"Our glaring weakness right now is on the defensive side of the ball," Mincey said. "That's been a major concern of ours for quite sometime. It's something that we have worked on really heavily for the past two weeks. We are trying to be a better defensive team, a better communicating team. It didn't really happen against Coker. Yeah we won by 30 but we gave up 71 and gave up a lot of easy stuff. Some of that is because of effort."
The two clubs are facing off for the 69th affair as Carson-Newman (6-4, 2-2) is leading Mars Hill 51-18 behind six straight wins and 13 of the last 14. During the current six-game winning streak, C-N has scored no fewer than 86 points winning by at least 27 and as many as 63 for an average of 46 per game. Mincey's crew has eclipsed triple digits in three of the last four.
The lone blemish in this recent stretch came at Stanford Arena on Feb. 3, 2016, an 83-82 comeback win for the Lions. The Lady Eagles are 29-6 inside of Holt Fieldhouse in the series having won six in-a-row since losing 87-78 on Jan. 18, 2012.
When the programs last squared off, Carson-Newman blew out Mars Hill 109-49 snagging the SAC record for three-pointers back. Anderson held the league record for two weeks as the Lady Eagles connected on 21 triples in the game tying Southeastern Oklahoma for the second-most made triples in a Division II game in 2018-19.
Despite playing no more than 24 minutes each, the starting five for Mincey combined for 80 points shooting 55 percent as a unit. Haris Price led the way with 28 points and six assists with Kayla Marosites (Elizabethton, Tenn.) adding 16 points and 11 boards.
Mars Hill enters the game having lost a 26 consecutive SAC games, the longest active drought in Division II. There are eight teams in Division III with a longer stretch, zero from Division I, led by Bryn Mawr's 194. Its last conference win came on Feb. 17, 2018 at Queens, 80-79. Over the last three-plus years, the program is 8-72 against the conference including a 1-41 stretch over the last 42 outings.
Brevard alumnae Briana Clark is in her first season on the bench for the Lions after spending eight years as the head coach at Spartanburg Methodist College where she won six Region X titles winning Coach of the Year honors four times.
The Lions have two wins this season, both on the road, beating Warren Wilson and Bluefield State. Through four conference affairs, the club is losing by an average of 24 points with an eight-point setback against Coker the only game that was not decided by at least 23.
Mars Hill ranks last in the league in 14 different categories and is the worst three-point shooting team in the country making 19 percent of its 121 attempts on the year. It is shooting the fifth-most foul shots in the country while making the 10th-highest. However, the Lions are making 68 percent at the line, eighth in the league.
Francis Marion transfer De'Ja Marshall is the SAC's second-leading scorer 18.7 per game shooting 46.8 percent from the field. The junior has scored in double figures in every game this season including four nights with at least 20. Marshall has five double-doubles on the year ranking 17th in the nation.
Broadcast coverage for Wednesday evening's affair starts at 5:15 p.m. with "The AEC Countdown to Tip-Off" on the Eagle Sports Network's flagship station, 106.3 (WPFT-FM, Sevierville), and online with video and audio links on cneagles.com/live.
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