JEFFERSON CITY, Tenn. – Addison Byrd and Braelyn Wykle combined for 45 points and went 17-for-24 from the field and 9-for-14 from deep in an 89-63 victory for Carson-Newman over Queens Saturday at Holt Fieldhouse in South Atlantic Conference action.
Byrd finished the game with a season-high 22 points going 9-for-12 from the field while adding three rebounds, three assists and two blocks. The Nashville, Tenn. native produced her fourth career 20-point scoring effort.
"Our whole team is really great players," Byrd said. "The way coach is subbing us now, not really platooning, but he is kind of going there. If the first team wasn't doing good or struggling then the second unit needs to come and pick it up. I feel like the second group is known to have energy on defense and I think we just got it done."
Wykle polished off an efficient shooting effort with 23 points going 8-for-12 from the field burying seven of 11 from beyond the arc. The Greeneville, Tenn. native became the first C-N player to drill seven triples in a game in 187 games and 2,217 days when Tatum Burstrom did so on Dec. 18, 2013 against Kentucky Wesleyan.
Carson-Newman (10-4, 6-2) secures its fifth straight win of the season and 11th in a row over Queens (3-11, 2-6), winning nine of those by double figures. C-N had been averaging 87 points and a win of 27 points over the last five home efforts against the Royals.
Kayla Marosites (Elizabethton, Tenn.) racked up her seventh consecutive double-double with 17 points and 11 boards adding five steals. That trio finished the game with 62 points going 22-for-39 from the field while the rest of the roster went 10-for-26.
The Lady Eagles forced 21 turnovers in the game scoring 28 points off of those giveaways, their second-most of the year. C-N finished plus-nine on the glass and racked up 17 second-chance points.
Carson-Newman's second unit provided a push in the first quarter after the team fell behind 6-3 in the opening two minutes. The Lady Eagles reeled off 19 of 22, the last 17 unanswered, as the lead swelled to 15 at 26-11 with 2:13 to go. It was a 12-point game after a frame thanks to 10-for-14 shooting from the field.
"It's something that we have been trying to do of late is to get a lot of people on the floor," Carson-Newman coach Mike Mincey said. "I think we have capable players. It's one all the way down to 13. They can all play but I think we have a good lineup out of that group and Byrd is the featured scorer. She did a really good job of them finding her. I think they played well together. The starters didn't have it early on. We were a little stagnant, but when you bring that energy off of the bench it gave us momentum."
Despite shooting 25 percent from the field in the second stanza, Queens outscored Mincey's crew 16-14 to trail 43-33 at the half. The Royals made nine foul shots in the frame.
The Orange and Blue's bench kept the Lady Eagles afloat in the first 20 minutes going 11-for-17 from the field compared to a 5-for-15 clip from the starting five. C-N saw its bench combine for 25 points. Overall, the team produced 36 bench points.
2⃣2⃣ season-high points from @AddisonByrd3
— Carson-Newman Athletics (@CNathletics) January 11, 2020
5⃣ straight victoires in 2019-20
1⃣1⃣ consecutive wins over Queens for @CNwbasketball pic.twitter.com/T8ZA5ctaaw
Queens made a push to start the third period cutting the margin to seven in the first two minutes. The Lady Eagles responded by scoring each of the next nine points and closing the quarter on a 27-11 run to take a 72-49 lead into the final frame.
Neither side shot the ball at a high clip in the fourth as the Lady Eagles pushed the margin to a game-high 31 with 6:38 to go on a three-pointer from Harli Smith (Jamestown, Tenn.) before settling on a 26-point winning margin.
Queens finished the game shooting 36 percent but made 79 percent of its foul shots going 23-for-29 at the stripe. Kristian Eanes, the league's fifth-leading scorer, finished the game with 21 points going 4-for-13 from the field. She made 13 of 17 foul shots becoming the first C-N foe to attempt 15 free throws since Bri Johnson of Catawba went 16-for-19 on Dec. 14, 2016, 98 days and 1,126 days ago.
Taylor Stevens was the only other player to score in double figures for the visitors posting 15 points.
The Lady Eagles tee it up again on Wednesday night against Tennessee rival Tusculum at 5:30 p.m. from Holt Fieldhouse. It will air on cneagles.com/live on and 106.3 (WPFT-FM, Sevierville) starting with "The AEC Countdown to Tip-Off" at 5:15 on the Eagle Sports Network.
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