VIDEO: Campbell Penland Interview
GREENVILLE, S.C. – Entering the fourth quarter tied at 45, second-seeded Carson-Newman scored the first nine points and held off a rally by third-seed Catawba to advance to its seventh South Atlantic Conference Tournament Championship game with a 66-58 triumph Saturday at Timmons Arena.
"When you get it this environment you have to step up," Carson-Newman coach Mike Mincey said. "Even though we turned the ball over I felt like we played good defense. The only thing that I didn't like in the fourth quarter was we threw the ball away. We scored points and made plays. If you are going to win this environment that's what you have to do."
With the win, Carson-Newman (25-5) secures its eighth 25-win season in program history while advancing to a title game for the second time in the last five campaigns. The Lady Eagles get their first postseason win over Catawba (23-6) since March 5, 2014 in the quarterfinals after dropping two in a row. Eleven of the program's 29 SAC Tournament wins have come as a two seed improving to 11-6 as the two.
For the third time as a rookie, Campbell Penland (Sevierville, Tenn.) led the Lady Eagles in scoring posting 18 points on six of 12 shooting. She added four rebounds as she scored 13 of her points in the second half.
"I haven't been playing too hot lately so I was trying to come into this game and forget everything that has been happening the past few weeks, come in today with a fresh mind and do whatever it took to help my team win today."
Lindsey Taylor (Maryville, Tenn.) registered a double-double for the eighth time this year finishing with 17 points and 11 rebounds going 8-for-13 from the field in the game. Braelyn Wykle (Greeneville, Tenn.) was the only other C-N player to finish in double figures posting 13 in 29 minutes.
Eight of the 10 players in the Orange and Blue pulled in at least four rebounds as C-N won the battle on the glass 48-34. C-N finished with a 36-24 lead in paint points. Neither side led by double digits as there were eight lead changes and six ties.
The Lady Eagles scored their fewest points of the season in the first quarter totaling 11 points going 4-for-16 from the field but were only down three at 14-11 after one after the Indians scored nine of the final 12 of the first.
In the first 3:13 of the second stanza, the Lady Eagles rattled off an 11-2 scoring burst to go ahead 22-16 before the Indians countered with six in a row to tie the margin. Addison Byrd (Nashville, Tenn.) made a jumper with 13 seconds to play in the half to put C-N ahead 30-26 going into halftime.
Catawba responded to start the third quarter aided by seven foul shots to take its largest lead of the day with 1:47 to go on a Lauren Ford three-pointer making it 43-39. C-N scored six of the final eight points to tie the score at 45 going into the final frame.
Carson-Newman scored the first nine points of the fourth bringing the scoring run to 15-4 overall to seize its largest lead of the day at 54-45 with 7:15 to go in the game. Catawba fired back scoring the next seven but never could get closer with the Lady Eagles making five of six free-throw attempts to preserve the win.
Catawba became the first team this year to record 15 steals against C-N forcing 26 turnovers holding a 19-15 edge in points off of giveaways. However the Indians made 27 percent from the field, the lowest output yielded by Mincey's unit.
Janiya Downs scored a season-high 20 points making six of 12 from the field and all eight of her foul shots. Lyrik Thorne chipped in 18 points and Shemya Stanback had 10.
The Lady Eagles will face-off against fourth-seeded Anderson for the SAC title on Sunday in the at 1 p.m. Air time on the Eagle Sports Network is 12:45 p.m. with "The AEC Countdown to Tip-Off" on Mountain Sports 106.3 (WPFT-FM, Sevierville) with an audio stream available on cneagles.com/live.
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