MARS HILL, N.C. – Leading by 20 points halfway through the third quarter, Carson-Newman (15-7, 9-5 SAC) was unable to maintain the second halftime lead falling at the buzzer to Mars Hill (12-11, 6-7 SAC) 67-65 on Wednesday evening inside Stanford Arena.

"We had a 20-point lead midway through the third quarter and lost because we failed for the second year in a row to make an open shot," Carson-Newman head coach Mike Mincey said. "If you can't make open shots, you can't win. It's as simple as that."

Lindsey Taylor (Maryville, Tenn.) made a free throw with 4:22 left in the third quarter and Carson-Newman led by 20 points. Later in the period, Karli Haworth drilled a three-pointer and the lead was 19 with 2:32 to go in the game. The Lions scored the final five points of the quarter and trailed by 14 after three quarters.

The Lady Eagles found a groove offensively early in the quarter. Makayla Alvey (Dandridge, Tenn) and Taylor made baskets to keep the lead at double digits. Five straight Lions points brought the deficit down seven with 7:30 to go. A Campbell Penland (Sevierville, Tenn.) layup slowed the run but Mars Hill was ready for another run. Holding C-N scoreless for the next four plus minutes, the Lions scored eight points to draw within a point. Penland finally broke the drought with a three-pointer with 2:50 remaining to go back up by four points.

Neither team scored for the next 90 seconds. It wasn't until 1:08 to play that Rucker and Harris made two free throws each in a 16 second sequence to tie the game with 52 seconds to go. C-N got the ball back but came up empty. Penland missed a three and despite getting the offensive rebound, Maddie Gillie stole the ball to give the Lions the basketball with 25 seconds left. Out of a timeout, Mars Hill's Harris committed an illegal screen, and the Lady Eagles had another chance to win the game. After a C-N timeout, Penland got a great look at layup but didn't get the roll on the rim. After the missed shot, the ball was deflected back out to Penland who tried a baseline jump shot but came up short and with 1.2 seconds left Mars Hill got the rebound and called timeout. The Lions drew up a sideline inbounds play to get Aaliyah El a layup as the buzzer sounded and the Lions completed a 20-point comeback.

Entering the game, Carson-Newman was 15-2 when leading with two minutes to go. It's just the 12th time C-N has lost when leading with two minutes to go since 2011. Mars Hill only led for 30 seconds of the game. C-N led for nearly 38 minutes of the game.

After Mars Hill made the first basket of the game, Braelyn Wykle (Greeneville, Tenn.) drilled her first two shots and Tori Rutherford (Rutledge, Tenn.) drilled a three-pointer to give the Lady Eagles an 8-0 run and a six-point lead after three minutes. The Lions continued to hang around in the opening quarter. C-N made five threes in the opening quarter, but Mars Hill never trailed by more than seven points in the period.

Both teams struggled offensively to begin the second quarter, with the first basket of the quarter coming two and a half minutes in from Jo Snow. Leading by six at the halfway point of the quarter, C-N scored seven straight points on another Rutherford three and back-to-back Taylor layups to lead by 13 with 3:19 to play until intermission. Back-to-back Keeleigh Rogers (Farragut, Tenn.) gave C-N its largest lead of the half, but Tateyoina Harris had a three-point play in the final minute to bring the Lions back within 12 at halftime.

Carson-Newman began creating separation early in the third quarter. Taylor made three straight unanswered baskets to swell the lead to 20 points. The Lions outscored C-N 34 to 12 in the final 14 minutes of the game.

After halftime, C-N was 10-36 from the field and 3-13 from beyond the arc. Mars Hill was 13-31 in the final 20 minutes.

Taylor finished with a game-high 24 points and grabbed eight rebounds. El, Gillie and Harris each had 16 points to pace Mars Hill.

Carson-Newman returns home Saturday at 2:00 p.m. when it welcomes Lenoir-Rhyne to Holt Fieldhouse. 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.