WISE, Va. – For the final time in the 2019-20 season, Carson-Newman looks for its 20th victory of the year hitting the road travelling to the Old Dominion State for the penultimate South Atlantic Conference contest of the season Wednesday night at 5:30 p.m. against UVa-Wise.
"We hang our hat on is that we have shot the ball well on the road this year in gyms that have typically been tough to shot in," Carson-Newman coach Mike Mincey said. "We have to have confidence in our shooting skills that our trip to Wise will be no different. They have a different backdrop on the one end."
Carson-Newman (19-7, 15-5) is angling for its third consecutive 11-win season in road affairs. The team has posted a 32-8 mark on the road since the start of the 2017-18 season after Mincey's teams had been 38-39 over his first six years. The Lady Eagles have been the best conference road team in that stretch going 24-6 in that stretch besting Anderson's 21-8 tally.
Mincey's side is looking to lock in a 20-win season for the fourth consecutive campaign. It would mark the longest stretch by the program since a string of seven straight 20-win seasons from 1983-84 through 1989-90, a span of 30 seasons ago.
Carson-Newman's three-point marksmanship has been on display throughout the season ranking second in the country with 294 converting at a 40 percent clip, good for third. The team has made at least 10 on 17 occasions. Entering Wednesday night, the Lady Eagles need 22 more to establish a new program and SAC record to pass the 315 set during the 2017-18 Elite Eight season.
Wednesday's meeting at UVa-Wise (12-14, 8-12) is the fourth all-time affair between the two sides and C-N's first visit to the Cavaliers since winning 71-58 on Jan. 22, 2001, the first all-time meeting between the two programs.
Braelyn Wykle paved the way for the Lady Eagles in the first meeting this season dropping 29 points in a 100-79 win at Holt Fieldhouse on Jan. 22. The rookie matched the program record with seven three-pointers in the game, the second time in the last four games for Wykle and fifth time in school history.
Carson-Newman saw five players score in double figures against a shorthanded UVa-Wise team drilling 18 triples, three shy of the league record. The Lady Eagles finished plus-23 on the glass with 52 boards winning the second-chance points battle 21-0 getting 37 points from the bench while tallying an assist on 26 of 36 made buckets.
Wise has dropped four of its last six games and needs to win out and get some help to secure a top eight spot in the standings and a slot in next week's SAC Tournament. However the team has been great at home going 8-4 compared to a 3-10 mark in road affairs.
Despite being better at home, the Cavaliers are scoring two fewer points in home contests this season with the efficiency numbers almost identical across the board varying by less than two percent. Two areas stick out as different, steals and blocks, increasing by an average of three per game.
Coach Jamie Cluesman has been playing shorthanded for much of the season with three players ranking in the top six of the league in minutes per game. The biggest missing piece to the puzzle is Cynita Webb who has missed the last 10 games. Webb was averaging 16 points and a dozen rebounds shooting 59 percent from the field. She still ranks third in the league with a dozen double-doubles.
Stat sheet stuffer Caitlyn Ross has a triple-double on her ledger in a 65-54 win over Catawba on Feb. 1. The rookie ranks ninth in the country in assists per game at six. In the first meeting with C-N, Ross became the first C-N foe with a double-double with points and assists versus Carson-Newman since Jasmine Gunn had 21 and 10 for Tusculum on Feb. 9, 2011, a span of 255 games and 3,267 days. She had 21 points, 11 assists, five steals and four boards.
Tune into the broadcast coverage starting at 5:15 p.m. on 106.3 (WPFT-FM, Sevierville) in the Lakeway Region and across the map on cneagles.com/live with "The Appalachian Electric Cooperative Countdown to Tip-Off" on the Eagle Sports Network.
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