JEFFERSON CITY, Tenn. – Playing a Saturday home game for the first time since Dec. 10, Carson-Newman looks to stop a two-game losing streak on Saturday at 2 p.m. hosting Anderson in South Atlantic Conference play inside of Holt Fieldhouse.
"Losing is not fun," Carson-Newman coach Mike Mincey said. "Regardless of losing two in a row, we are still first in our division and we have a lot to play for at this point in time. We can't feel sorry for ourselves. We got a good Anderson coming in on Saturday. If we don't right the ship, it could get ugly for us because we have a tough schedule coming up."
Having lost back-to-back SAC games for the first time since the 2019-20 season, the Lady Eagles have not lost three in a row to the league since the 2015-16 campaign, seven years ago, dropping three straight to Lenoir-Rhyne, Tusculum and Wingate from Feb. 13-20, 2016.
It could be a record-breaking day on Saturday for Braelyn Wykle (Greeneville, Tenn.) as the junior needs 16 points to join the school's all-time leading scorer, Lisa Stogner (1980-84), in the 2,000-point club and is five three-pointers away from passing assistant coach Tatum Burstrom for the program's all-time long distance shooting champion.
Wykle would become the sixth player in league history to reach the 2,000-point mark and first since Tusculum's Jasmine Gunn in 2011. She is the fifth player in SAC history to drain 250-plus triples. Among active Division II players, Wykle would be the sixth player to score 2,000 points in her career and 21st among all three divisions with 15 being at the top level. She has the eighth-most trifectas among active Division II players entering the weekend.
Carson-Newman (14-8, 9-3) meets Anderson (13-10, 7-6) for the 31st clash between the program with the Orange and Blue jumping out to an 18-12 overall advantage thanks to five wins in a row, the longest streak for either side in the series. Three of the five games have been decided by single digits with two by on possession. The last setback came on Feb. 1, 2020, a 102-100 double overtime win for the Trojans that saw a game-winning buzzer beater.
After grinding wins by two and three points in the regular season last year, the Orange and Blue put together one of the most dominant performances in SAC Tournament history winning the final 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.
Anderson sits in fourth in the Piedmont division and saw a three-game winning streak snapped by Catawba on Wednesday falling 69-62 at home. The club is 7-3 inside of the Abney Athletic Center versus a 6-7 mark in road and neutral contests having lost three of the last four.
Traditionally one of the best defensive teams in the league, the Trojans are seventh in the SAC in scoring defense at 64 points per game and eighth in field-goal percentage defense allowing a 39-percent clip. The club makes up for it by ranking second in rebounding grabbing 42 per night with 15 coming at the offensive end, the most in the conference.
Despite ranking fourth in the SAC with nearly 19 free-throw attempts per game, Anderson is 11th in the league by making 64 percent. There have been 13 games where the team converted at a rate below 60 percent and five at 50 percent or worse.
Three players are averaging double figures led by a dozen from reigning Freshman of the Year Diamond McDowell. The forward has upped her game of late notching eight double-digit efforts in a row posting better than 15 points per outing over that stretch.
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. Video is available with your subscription to FloSports.
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