JEFFERSON CITY, Tenn. – For the first time as a member of the South Atlantic Conference, UVa-Wise pays a visit to Mossy Creek to take on Carson-Newman Wednesday night at 5:30 p.m. from Holt Fieldhouse.
Braelyn Wykle (Greeneville, Tenn.) is putting together not just one of the best freshman seasons in C-N history but one of the best overall by a point guard. After scoring 12 points per game in non-conference game, the rookie is up to 17 points per night against the league, good for fourth in the SAC. She leads the conference in three-point percentage, 52 percent, and is seventh in field-goal percentage during that span. Over the last four games, she has made 17 triples shooting 57 percent from deep.
Through the first 10 games of the year, opponents were shooting 41 percent from the field and scoring 74 points per game. In the last six games, no team has shot above 40 percent compiling a 33 percent field-goal percentage (127-386) and posting 61 points per game.
"I feel like there are still some areas where we need to improve upon when it comes to the defensive end," Carson-Newman coach Mike Mincey said. "I think right before the Christmas break and the week after we spent a lot of time on the defensive end. Even though we like to score and want to be a really good offensive team, we spent some time there. It's a want-to thing and we have good defenders. I think the emergence of Qua [Hines] being eligible to play and Madison Bunch has given us a little bit of a bump on the defensive end as well."
While UVa-Wise (8-8, 4-6) is in its first season as a member of the conference, the two teams have played twice before coming during the 2000-01, a home-and-home effort. The Lady Eagles captured victories in both games winning 84-50 at home and 71-58 on the road roughly a month later.
To find the last time that C-N played a team from the Old Dominion State you have to go back to Dec. 30, 2012 when the Lady Eagles beat Virginia Intermont 79-60 at Holt Fieldhouse. The leading scorer for the team that night was a freshman from Maryville, assistant coach Tatum Burstrom, who poured in 16 points and dished out six assists.
The Cavaliers won six of the first nine games of the season but have won just two of the last seven in large part due to road woes. Wise is 6-2 at home but 1-5 in road games despite shooting higher percentages across the board. Its only victory away from home came on Nov. 14 at Concord, 87-81.
There have been four occasions where an opponent has shot at least 49 percent from the field as the Cavaliers are yielding 46 percent in road games and giving up 83 points on average and at least 80 four times.
Coach Jamie Cluesman's team is the most efficient offense in the conference shooting 46 percent as a team, the 25th-best mark in the nation. The team is shooting 52 percent on its two-point attempts this year. However January has not been kind to the team. After scoring 80 points per game and shooting nearly 48 percent in the first 11 contests of the year, the Cavs are scoring 68 points and shooting 41 percent.
"They are very efficient on the offensive end," Mincey said. "The thing that has caught up with them a little bit in some of these games is their lack of depth through injury or whatever. Their bench has gotten shorten down. It would happen to anybody. The fatigue would start to play out in the fourth quarter. I would imagine that that is kind of what happened. They have proven through the first stretch of the season that their first five or six players are good enough to play with anybody in the league."
Only five players on the roster have played in all 16 games this year with three individuals ranking in the top six in the league in minutes per game. While the offense has been the calling card, it is ranked eighth in the league in rebounding average, ninth in field-goal percentage defense and 11th in scoring defense.
Wednesday's game features the top two rebounders in the league. With Kayla Marosites (Elizabethton, Tenn.) pacing the SAC, Cynita Webb is not far behind with 12.1 per game, eighth in the country. Webb is third in scoring at 16.3 points per game and sixth in the country with 12 double-doubles. She had recorded seven straight until settling for nine points and two rebounds against Coker on Saturday.
Kingston, Tenn. native Caitlyn Ross is second on the roster in scoring at 13.4 points per game while ranking fifth in the country in assists per game with 6.2 on average. The rookie has at least five in 12 games this year.
Fans can enjoy a night of basketball for free on the Eagle Sports Network. If residents of the Lakeway region want to kick back to listen to the radio they can flip on Mountain Country 106.3 WPFT-FM. For those outside of the area, a high definition video stream and an audio option is available on cneagles.com/live beginning at 5:15 p.m. with "The Appalachian Electric Cooperative Countdown to Tip-Off".
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