INDIANAPOLIS – After being slotted fifth in all three regional polls, Carson-Newman remained in the No. 5 slot punching its ticket to a 12th NCAA Women's Basketball Championships in program history announced by the conference on Sunday evening.
Dancing for the 12th time in program history, this is the first time that the school has been to five consecutive NCAA Tournaments. Carson-Newman had been to the dance in back-to-back seasons once doing so in 2009 and 2010. This year is the sixth time in coach Mike Mincey's 11 seasons at Mossy Creek that the Lady Eagles are in the field.
The last time the program made an appearance in at least five postseason national tournaments in a row came from 1989-93 when it went to five consecutive NAIA District 26 Playoffs winning three contests over that stretch.
"We are happy to be in the tournament," Mincey said. "What I told our players is you can only take care of who is in front of you. You try to take committees out of it. Luckily for us we won the tournament today so you didn't have to worry about a committee putting you in. I think our kids have played really well of late. I think we had a really good weekend."
In 16 postseason games since joining Division II, Carson-Newman is 6-10 having won the first round contest in 2005, 2010 and 2018. Three of the wins came en route to a region title in 2018 and two came in 2005 when it was members of the South Atlantic Region losing the final to Shaw 67-53.
A school from the South Atlantic Conference has advanced to the Elite Eight on six occasions with Wingate going in 1995, 1996 and 2008. Mars Hill advanced to the national quarterfinals in 2002 and Tusculum made a trip in 2010. No program has won a game in the Elite Eight in those six outings.
The Orange and Blue won the SAC's scoring title for the seventh straight season averaging 81.1 points per game, good for fifth in the country. C-N is seventh in Division II in field-goal percentage at 46.8 per night and first in assists per game dishing out 19 on average.
Carson-Newman secured its third SAC Tournament Championship on Sunday crushing Anderson 83-58. The 25-point differential matched the league's largest margin of victory in a title game matching the 25-point spread by Presbyterian in 1998. With 83 points, the club came within two points of the championship game high mark.
"It was incredible," senior guard Abby Wilson said. "We were just loose. We knew walking into that locker room that this game was ours. Knowing that anyone on the court can shoot at any given moment. We are deadly with any of the five players on the court at one time. It makes you feel loose."
This season is the fourth time that the program will face a fellow SAC team going 2-1. The Lady Eagles beat Lenoir-Rhyne 79-72 in the opening round on March 12, 2010 in Greenwood, S.C and took down Anderson en route to the 2018 region title, 70-62, in the first round in a one versus eight matchup. Last season's loss to Catawba in the opening round is the lone loss in that time.
Meeting for the 82nd time overall, Wingate holds a 46-35 advantage in the all-time series as the club will meet in the postseason for the 14th time. Eleven of those meetings have come in the SAC Tournament and only one has come in the NCAA Tournament as C-N leads 8-6 in the postseason.
The lone NCAA Tournament meeting came on March 7, 1995 in the first round on Wingate's home floor, a 77-64 Bulldogs victory. In the last postseason matchup, the Lady Eagles prevailed in the 2018 SAC Tournament Title affair winning 79-70 on March 4, 2018.
The winner of the Southeast advances to the NCAA Division II Women's Basketball Elite Eight in Birmingham, Ala. at the Birmingham Crossplex from March 21-25. The eight region champions will get reseeded and matchups will be announced following the conclusion of the regional rounds.
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