VIDEO: Anderson Highlights Feb. 2024
JEFFERSON CITY, Tenn. – For the third year in a row, Carson-Newman (20-8, 14-6 SAC) will square with Anderson (21-7, 13-7 SAC) in the South Atlantic Conference Women's Basketball tournament. The 2024 version will feature the third-seeded Lady Eagles versus the sixth-seeded Trojans tomorrow afternoon at 2:30 p.m. inside the Rock Hill Sports and Events Center.
Carson-Newman earned the number three seed in the South Atlantic Conference tournament after finishing the regular season 14-6 in league play, owning the three-way tiebreaker between Lincoln Memorial and Wingate.
C-N has been a top four seed 23 times and has an 18-5 record in the quarterfinals. Overall, C-N is 30-30 in the SAC Women's Basketball Championships, with seven championship game appearances and three championships. The Lady Eagles are one of three teams along with Catawba and Wingate to participate in each SAC Tournament since the first iteration in 1991.
Wednesday afternoon's meeting will be the third straight postseason the clubs meet and the second straight season they square off in the quarterfinal round. The two met in Holt Fieldhouse in a 4/5 matchup last season with the Trojans leaving town with a 72-64 victory, C-N's last loss at home. In 2022, AU and C-N met in the SAC title game with Mincey's squad coming out on top in dominant fashion 83-58.
In the two regular season matchups this season, the two squads held serve by winning on their home court. Anderson won the first meeting back on Dec. 16 by 13 and C-N evened the season series with a five-point home win on Feb 17.
In last week's NCAA Southeast regional rankings, Anderson was slotted in second and Carson-Newman was fourth. But yet the two meet here in the South Atlantic Conference quarterfinals.
Carson-Newman has consistently been one of the best passing teams all season long. The Lady Eagles are first and top ten nationally in both assists per game (18.7) and assist to turnover ratio (1.22). The stellar passing has led to C-N posting the second best and second most efficient offense in the league.
The Lady Eagles have managed to get it done on both ends of the floor though. C-N has the number one field goal percentage defense and gets a league-high 12 steals a night. With that, has also come one of the best rebounding teams grabbing 44 per game, the ninth most in the country.
Braelyn Wykle (Greeneville, Tenn.) is having another record-breaking season to pace C-N. The graduate student is coming off her best performance of her five-year career, scoring a career-high 45 points and making a single-game record 13 three-pointers. That incredible performance gave Wykle the single-season record for three-pointers made with 93.
Wykle continues to climb the all-time NCAA DII women's basketball scoring list. Her 2,679 career points rank sixth all-time and second in SAC history. She is 85 points away from moving into the top five all-time. Wykle has 356 career made three-pointers, tenth-most in DII history and second-most in SAC history.
Anderson heads into postseason play having won its last two games of the regular season over Mars Hill and Tusculum. The Trojans are 21-7 overall with all seven losses coming in conference play. AU is 13-1 at home, 7-6 on the road and 1-0 on a neutral floor. Head coach Jonathan Barbaree's team has reached the championship game four of the last five seasons and has been in the semifinals six straight years. Their most recent came as the number two seed losing to seventh-seeded Catawba 70-64 in 2017.
The Trojans present the most dangerous offensive attack in the conference in points per game and efficiency. AU scores nearly 79 points per game on 44% shooting. All five starters shoot better than 41% from the field. Most of the scoring comes in the paint, as AU only shoots 32% from beyond the arc on just 17 attempts per game.
Diamond McDowell was a first-team All-SAC selection after averaging 17 points and 10 rebounds per game. The forward also gets it done defensively with 49 blocks, second-most in the league. Zamiya Passmore rounded out AU's all-league selections by being a second team pick. The Lander transfer averaged 16 points, five rebounds and seven assists per game in the regular season. Her 189 dimes are second-most in the country.
Tipoff between the Lady Eagles and Trojans is slated for 2:30 p.m. Coverage on the Eagle Sports Network begins at 2:15 with the AEC Countdown to Tipoff on Mountain Talk 106.3 (WPFT-FM, Sevierville) and online at cneagles.com/live.
