VIDEO: Madison Bunch and Qua Hines Interview
JEFFERSON CITY, Tenn. – In the final regular-season game of the year, No. 13 Carson-Newman picked up its largest win of the year throttling Lincoln Memorial 85-46 Wednesday evening at Holt Fieldhouse behind 52 percent shooting and active defense to win its second regular-season title in four years.
The Lady Eagles secure their sixth overall regular-season crown and their fourth outright title in the history of the program behind their largest win of the season. Wednesday was the 12th consecutive home win tying the second-longest in program history.
"We are the one seed going into the tournament," Carson-Newman coach Mike Mincey said. "We didn't get to play a full round-robin schedule. Covid has really effected some teams. It's great for our group that we had to try to navigate this. The one thing that I am most proud of is the top teams in our league, Wise, Tusculum and Catawba – we had to play them all on the road and they didn't come to Holt Fieldhouse. I feel like we played a ton of games on the road without any return trips. I am super proud of our kids because this is a weird year. You get an opportunity to have home court in the SAC Tournament as long as you win and you couldn't ask for much more than that."
For the fifth straight home game Carson-Newman (15-2, 15-2) shot above 50 percent from the field going 34-for-66 from the floor, 52 percent, and making nine of 17 from long distance.
Lincoln Memorial (8-10, 7-10) turned the ball over 19 times leading to 25 points off of giveaways as C-N was plus-12, 44-32, on the glass.
"It was a really good performance," Mincey said. "We got beat up there by five. The kids knew they had something to prove. We scored well but didn't defend well up there. I am very disappointed in our performance at Limestone. I think a lot of people were doubting our basketball team coming into this game. I am super happy by the performance that they put forth. One thing that they did was they played together and played hard with a great effort. When that happens, we are pretty good."
Braelyn Wykle (Greeneville, Tenn.) led the team in scoring with 22 points in 26 minutes going 9-for-13 from the field making four of seven from long distance adding three assists, three boards and two steals.
Lindsey Taylor (Maryville, Tenn.) tallied her seventh double-double of the year posting 17 points, 10 rebounds and a career-high three blocks. The sophomore went 7-for-10 from the field.
Skylar Boshears (Lafollette, Tenn.) added 10 points off of the bench. Senior Madison Bunch (Morristown, Tenn.) added six points, five rebounds and three assists with fellow senior Qua Hines (Gatlinburg, Tenn.) scoring eight points and dishing out four helpers.
"It means a lot," Hines said. "We couldn't do it without the other girls on our team chipping in and it means a lot since it's my last go around. I think that our mindset defense. As long as we play defense and get shot opportunities on the offensive end we will be okay in whatever game we play."
"We have worked really hard to come together as a team," Bunch said. "We played more together tonight that we had previously. We got back to where we needed to be going into tournament time. We had revenge on our mind. They got us at their place. With a lot on the line, we wanted the title."
�� Fifth straight home game shooting 50 percent
— Carson-Newman Athletics (@CNathletics) February 25, 2021
�� Largest win of the year
�� SAC Regular-Season Title@CNwbasketball and @QuaBaby23 had a good night. pic.twitter.com/98otFaSJ2U
After trailing by five early, LMU tied the score at 11 with three minutes to go in the period. C-N answered with an 8-0 burst in less than 90 seconds with Abby Wilson (Kingston, Tenn.) hitting a right-wing jumper to cap the burst. The visitors scored the final three of the period to close the gap to 19-14 after 10 minutes.
In the second stanza, an 11-0 scoring sequence highlighted a period where the Lady Eagles outscored the Railsplitters 19-5. It was the fewest points scored against Mincey's club in any quarter this year as LMU went 2-for-13 from the field and failed to score over a 4:09 stretch.
Mincey's unit was on fire in the third period making 12 of 17 shots from the field taking a 69-33 advantage into the final period behind a 31-14 frame.
Spanning the third and fourth quarters, Carson-Newman ripped off a 21-0 scoring burst, the longest of the year, holding the 'Splitters scoreless for nearly six minutes as the lead reached a season-high 46 points at 81-35 with 6:47 to go in the game. Despite failing to score in the final 3:38 of game action the home crew secured an 85-46 win.
Lincoln Memorial had shot above 40 percent in seven straight games but was held to 35 percent. It entered the game ranked 13th in the country in three-point efficiency but went 3-for-17 from deep, 18 percent.
Lauren Flowers was the only player to score in double figures netting 13 points adding seven rebounds. Mikayla Kuehne chipped in five points, eight boards and three assists off of the bench and Jordan Maney scored nine points going 4-for-14 from the field.
The Lady Eagles get a first-round bye in the expanded 2021 SAC Women's Basketball Championship and will play at Holt Fieldhouse on Monday night at 5:30 against the winner of the Coker and Lincoln Memorial game in the eight versus nine matchup. Broadcast coverage will air on cneagles.com/live in video and audio formats with local radio coverage on The Mountain 106.3 (WPFT-FM, Sevierville).
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