EMORY, Va. – With two straight wins on the ledger, Carson-Newman looks to match its longest winning streak of the season on Saturday afternoon on Bob Johnson Court squaring off with first-year South Atlantic Conference member Emory & Henry at 2 p.m.
"This is the time of the year where they're not in school," Carson-Newman coach Mike Mincey said. "They shouldn't have a problem getting enough rest. Emory & Henry is having a nice year. They beat LMU, Limestone and King in back-to-back-to-back games. They are playing really well at home. We are going to have to go in there and watch film and prepare them the best we can."
Braelyn Wykle (Greeneville, Tenn.) is two points shy of taking over sole possession of second place on the program's all-time scoring list sitting a 1,736 in 93 career games. She is 598 points behind the all-time leader of Lisa Stogner's record of 2,333. Of the top seven scorers in school history, only Wykle and Shari Buford, 2006-10, in fourth with 1,496 points have played during the Division II era.
Since turning the ball over a season-high 22 times against Catawba on Nov. 28, the Lady Eagles have recorded four straight outings of 11 or fewer posting 10.3 on average in that stretch. As a team, C-N has a 2.10 assist-to-turnover ratio winning three of the four contests.
Saturday is Carson-Newman's (6-5, 2-2) first meeting with Emory & Henry (5-5, 2-1) with the Wasps members of the league but the club met on Jan. 19, 2022 seeing the Lady Eagles shoot 53 percent in a 90-51 victory at Holt Fieldhouse. Sydney Pearce became the seventh player in program history to block 100 shots for her career in the game as the team forced 26 turnovers scoring 29 points off of those giveaways.
Last season the Wasps went 13-12 and lost all three of its meetings with SAC schools but sits at .500 for the year with wins in three straight before falling to Tusculum on Wednesday night. One of the team's victories came at home against Limestone on Dec. 3 beating the Saints 98-87.
Emory & Henry has won four of its five home games with the lone loss coming in the season opener to Milligan, a 61-55 defeat on Nov. 12. The unit is scoring 20 more points per game and shooting 48 percent from the field at home versus a 33 percent mark on the road. Interestingly, the Wasps average 21 turnovers per game at home versus 13.5 on the road.
Coach Jaclyn Dickens's crew ranks last in the league in rebounding average being outrebounded by an average of six per game for the year with nine straight games of single-digit offensive boards. Posting 18 turnovers per game, the club has at least 19 in five games in a row and five overall with 20 or more.
Three players are averaging in double figures for the year but none are posting more than 11 on average. Campbell transfer Breanna Yarber leads the unit with 10.7 points per contest with seven double figure scoring nights for the year. However she has been held below 10 in three of the last four going 11-for-29 from the field in that period.
Broadcast coverage airs on Mountain Talk 106.3 FM and cneagles.com/live starting at 1:45 p.m. with "The AEC Countdown to Tip-Off" courtesy of the Eagle Sports Network.
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