JEFFERSON CITY, Tenn. – Top-seeded and 13th-ranked Carson-Newman opens up the 2021 South Atlantic Conference women's Basketball Championships Monday evening at 5:30 p.m. inside of Holt Fieldhouse against eighth-seeded Lincoln Memorial in a rubber outing between the two schools.
Carson-Newman (15-2) is 27-28 all-time in the SAC Women's Basketball Championships with two titles in 2005 and 2018 appearing in six championship games in 1995, 1998, 1999, 2005, 2007 and 2018. The Lady Eagles have hosted a quarterfinal matchup 20 times with a 17-3 record.
This the fourth time that the program enters the conference tournament as the top seed as it did so in 1992, 1995 and 2018. The Lady Eagles lost in the semifinals to fourth-seeded Wingate 61-60 on Feb. 26, 1992, went to the title game in 1995 before falling to third-seeded Presbyterian 74-68 and beat Lenoir-Rhyne, Lincoln Memorial and Wingate en route to the title in 2018.
In 30 SAC Tournaments, top seeds are a perfect 30-0 in the quarterfinals, 25-5 in the semifinals and 13-12 in the title round winning five of the last 10 but only two of the last seven. The last time a No. 1 seed failed to reach the title game came in 2010, a span of 11 years, when Lenoir-Rhyne was bounced by fourth-seeded Tusculum 77-63 as the Pioneers went onto win their first of three trophies. The top-seeded club in the SAC Championships have brought home 13 titles with three seeds tallying nine and two seeds winning five.
After the 'Splitters beat Coker 80-66 in the first round of the tournament on Saturday, it sets the stage for the fourth meeting in the SAC Tournament in the last five postseasons. LMU has won two of the first three including an 80-77 overtime decision on March 6, 2019 as the No. 6 seed snapping a 10-game program winning streak when hosting a SAC quarterfinal.
Neither team led by more than four points during a contest that featured 16 ties and 15 lead changes. Lindsay Profitt went 4-for-4 at the free-throw to ice the game as LMU made 56 percent from the floor in the second half to pull out the victory.
Overall Monday night is the 89th all-time meeting with C-N posting a 53-35 overall lead and getting a 12-11 edge in coach Mike Mincey's tenure behind an 85-46 demolition in the regular-season finale at Holt Fieldhouse. It was the fourth time in the last 10 meetings that the club has won by double figures as the three losses during that stretch have come by a total of 10 points.
Wouldn't want to conquer this season with anyone else. Regular season champs! Go eagles! pic.twitter.com/MjxjyPg4j2
— Carson-Newman WBB (@CNwbasketball) February 25, 2021
�� @B_Wykle spin cycle �� pic.twitter.com/DWXLV5ZyUU
— Carson-Newman Athletics (@CNathletics) February 25, 2021
Carson-Newman has rattled off 12 home victories in a row, tied for the second-longest in school history, since losing in double overtime to No. 20 Anderson on Feb. 1, 2020 on a buzzer beater, the ninth time in school history the program has a double-digit home winning string. Ten of the 12 games have been decided by double figures with the unit winning by an average of 24 points. The Orange and Blue are averaging 90 points per game over that time.
It ranks 15th among active streaks in the country and the fourth-longest in the region behind North Georgia (35), Lander (24) and Barton (14). Newberry is second in the SAC at six in a row. Since the start of the 2016-17 campaign, the Lady Eagles are 57-9 at home with two overtime losses and no loss margin greater than six points.
Through eight home games, the Orange and Blue are shooting 51 percent and have shot at least 50 percent in each of the last five averaging 94 points per game (469 total) and shooting 52 percent from the field, 185-for-354.
Wednesday's affair was the second-worst shooting night of the year for the program hitting 35 percent from the field. Only an 18 percent outlier against Anderson on Jan. 6 was worse. The Railsplitters have made at least 40 percent from the floor in 12 of the last 16 outings bouncing back by making 46 percent against the Cobras.
Five players scored in double figures led by 16 points apiece from Jordan Maney and Mikayla Kuehne. The duo went 11-for-29 from the field however. Coach Devan Carter's team was opportunistic scoring 25 points off of 15 turnovers.
Lauren Flowers, the team's leading scorer, has posted double digits in 17 of 19 games with two affairs of 20-plus points. The guard has been highly efficient in the last three games making 16 of 23 shots from the floor and five of 11 from long range. She leads a group that features six double-digit scorers. That group has accounted for 87 percent of the team's scoring.
For those unable to attend, the Eagle Sports Network will be live locally on The Mountain 106.3 (WPFT-FM, Sevierville) with audio and video streams available on cneagles.com/live starting at 5:15 p.m. with "The AEC Countdown to Tip-Off".
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