JEFFERSON CITY, Tenn. – With two games left in the regular season, Carson-Newman aims to run its home winning streak to double figures on Wednesday night at 5:30 p.m. playing host to Emory & Henry at Holt Fieldhouse in South Atlantic Conference play.
"It was nice to come back home to Holt Fieldhouse and pick up a win," Carson-Newman coach Mike Mincey said. "I felt like if we could get that win it would give us that much needed confidence and boost in our mentals. We have two more to go and we need to pick them up for sure."
In the history of the program, the team has recorded seven double-digit home winning streaks with the best margin of all-time coming over a 27-game period that ended during the 2018-19 season that was the third-longest mark at the time. Prior to that the longest string was 12 in a row set on four occasions.
Wednesday will be the third meeting between Carson-Newman (16-10, 11-5) and Emory & Henry (7-17, 4-12) with the Lady Eagles winning a pair of blow outs, 90-51 at Holt Fieldhouse on Jan. 19, 2022 and 81-45 on Dec. 17, 2022 in the Old Dominion State.
In the first matchup this year, the Orange and Blue held the Wasps to 19 percent shooting from the field outscoring the club 25-4 in the first period cruising to a victory. Braelyn Wykle (Greeneville, Tenn.) led the way with 17 points making seven of 10 shots and Kali McMahan (Dandridge, Tenn.) pitched in 13 points.
Emory & Henry enters the contest losers of six in a row, three by double figures, since winning at Mars Hill on Jan. 25, 65-61. It is one of the two road wins for the club this year with the other coming in the second contest of the year beating Lees-McRae 63-50 on Nov. 17.
In road outings, the Wasps are scoring 59 points per game, nearly 10 points fewer than at home making five three-pointers per game. However the team posts more than three fewer turnovers per game away from home. Five of the eight road losses have been by double figures.
Defensively, the group ranks third from the bottom in scoring defense allowing 69 points per game while being the second-worst rebounding team in the conference with a minus-six rate. The scoring numbers rises to 71 in league action while it sits in seventh in field-goal percentage defense allowing 39 percent.
The club has shot below 40 percent in five in a row since shooting 47 percent in a 21-point loss at Coker on Jan. 28. Overall the margin has been below 40 in 18 of the team's 24 games ranking ninth in the conference at 39 percent overall for the year.
Breanna Yarber is one of the team's two players that scores in double figures on a nightly basis posting 13 per game ranking fourth in efficiency making a shade below 50 percent of her attempts. She has 16 games in double figures including a three-game period at the beginning of January where she scored 20, 27 and 32. She ranks third in the league with 39 blocks and has one in 10 in a row, 25 total.
Broadcast coverage airs on Mountain Talk 106.3 FM and cneagles.com/live starting at 5:15 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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