WINGATE, N.C. – Preparing for a sixth top 25 opponent this year, Carson-Newman will play its final regular-season road game of the year on Saturday at 2 p.m. facing off with 23rd-ranked Wingate at Cuddy Arena in a South Atlantic Conference clash.
"It's going to be another tough opponent on the road," Carson-Newman coach Mike Mincey said. "We haven't fared as well on the road after faring well on the road the last several years. This group hasn't done that as well. It will be a tough test against a good team that plays inside and out. These next four will all be tough challenges for us. We have four games, most everybody else has three. The twists and turns of the season are interesting."
The Lady Eagles have lost three straight road games since winning at UVA Wise on Jan. 25 bringing their season total to seven road losses. It is the most road losses since dropping seven in 2015-16 after going five years in a row with three or fewer road setbacks.
Carson-Newman (15-9, 10-4) is 2-3 on the year against ranked foes and is 7-7 in road games during Mincey's coaching tenure on the road against top 25 units. The Orange and Blue's strength of schedule ranks 29th in the country and seventh in the region with opponents posting a .563 winning percentage.
This weekend's contest is the 83rd meeting with Wingate (18-6, 11-4) holding a 46-36 advantage and a 22-14 lead in games played at Cuddy Arena. Despite winning back-to-back visits in 2020 and 2021, the Lady Eagles have lost seven of the last nine times they have travelled in the series including a 74-58 loss to the No. 17 team in the country on Jan. 22, 2022.
Saturday is a rematch of the opening round of the 2022 NCAA Women's Basketball Championships watching fifth-seeded Carson-Newman blow out fourth-seeded Wingate 81-65, the largest NCAA Tournament win in school history, in a game where Mincey's club led by as many as 23.
Carson-Newman shot at least 50 percent in three of the four quarters. Braelyn Wykle (Greeneville, Tenn.) scored a game-high 17 points going 7-for-11 from the field to move past Shari Buford and into third on the school's all-time scoring list as one of four double-digit scorers.
After a stretch of losing three out of four games, the Bulldogs have won seven in a row since a 73-68 loss to Catawba on Jan. 18. It is good for the 14th-longest winning streak in the country, the best in the SAC and second-best in the region behind Francis Marion's 16-game string. Six of the wins have come by double figures with the lone exception being an eight-point victory over Anderson on Jan. 25.
Coach Ann Hancock's team is the most efficient scoring unit in the league making 45 percent of its shots, good for the 19th-best margin in the country. The team has 13 games with at least a 45-percent clip from the field going 10-3 in those games. The Bulldogs have been held below 40 percent six times.
One area offensively where the team has struggled has been turnovers ranking eighth in the league with 17 giveaways per game with 12 such affairs and seven with at least 20. The club is 10-0 when turning the ball over 15 or fewer times versus an 8-6 when it exceeds that tally.
Three players are averaging double figures on a nightly basis led by 14.5 per game from the reigning SAC Player of the Year, Bryanna Troutman. The forward has been in double figures in 11 of the last 12 games going for at least 20 points in five of the last eight contests with five double-doubles after posting zero prior to Jan. 18.
Rookie Emily Hege has scored in double figures in each of her last seven averaging 19 per game over that period behind three straight games of at least 23 points shooting 25-for-38, 66 percent, from the floor. She has made 20 foul shots in a row since a miss against Anderson on Jan. 25.
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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