February 14, 2025

Saturday showdown for C-N at Wingate

It’s a battle for second place in the South Atlantic Conference as Carson-Newman (18-6, 15-5 SAC) visits Wingate (16-7. 15-4 SAC) on Saturday afternoon at 2:00 p.m.

Carson-Newman

19-6, 16-5 SAC

Wingate

16-8, 15-5 SAC

Final

Carson-Newman 19-6, 16-5 SAC

Wingate 16-8, 15-5 SAC

VIDEO: Carson-Newman vs Wingate Highlights

C-N Game Notes (PDF)

JEFFERSON CITY, Tenn. – It's a battle for second place in the South Atlantic Conference as Carson-Newman (18-6, 15-5 SAC) visits Wingate (16-7. 15-4 SAC) on Saturday afternoon at 2:00 p.m.

Carson-Newman trails Wingate by half a game in the conference standings with just a few weeks remaining in the regular season. The Lady Eagles won the first meeting in Holt Fieldhouse back on Jan 18, 88-54. It was a game where C-N led by just four points at halftime but outscored WU 34-13 in the third period to run away with a 34-point victory. Carson-Newman outscored Wingate 57-27 in the second half, making 10 three-pointers and 53 percent of its shots.

In an 89-60 win against Tusculum on Wednesday, C-N shot the cover off the basketball making 15 of its 30 three-point attempts. The 50 percent shooting from long range is the best three-point shooting mark on the road since going 11 of 22 against Queens on Feb 14, 2022. Two years before that, C-N also went 50 percent from three and made 15 triples in a win over Queens.

When Carson-Newman wins, it wins big this season. 12 of its 17 wins are by 20 points or more this season. 16 of the 18 wins are by 12 points or more. C-N's average scoring margin is 15.5, the best in the SAC and 16th nationally. In Mike Mincey's tenure, C-N has 113 wins by 20 points or more with the most in a season being 19 during the magical 2017-18 season. 7 of Carson-Newman's last 8 wins have been by 20 points or more.

Two Lady Eagles continue to make their way up the program's all-time charts. Lindsey Taylor has 1,602 career points and is 136 points from passing Leah Jackson's 1,737 third place scoring mark. Taylor also is top ten in rebounding all-time. She has 838 career rebounds and with her next six boards, can move all the way up to sixth in program history. Campbell Penland continues to move her way up the program's scoring and three-point shooting ranks. Her 1,299 career points is 13th all-time. She will need 27 more points to move into 12th and just 78 points to move into the top ten on the program's all-time scoring list. Penland has 216 career three-pointers and is seven away from having the third most in school history.

The Lady Eagles rank in the top 15 nationally in six different categories. C-N's 20.3 assists per game is number one, while its 1.30 assist to turnover ratio is sixth best. The skillful passing has led to the seventh-best scoring offense getting 82.7 points per game and to shoot 45.6 percent from the field, ranking 12th nationally.

Winners of its last six games, Wingate enters Saturday's showdown with a 16-7 overall record and a 15-4 league record in 2024-25. The Bulldogs have the longest active winning streak in the conference and in the Southeast region. During this six-game winning streak, WU has three of its wins by five points or less.

WU has been tough to beat in Cuddy Arena this season. The Bulldogs are 10-0 at home, one of just 14 DII teams that are still unbeaten at home this season. Their average margin of victory at home is 10.9 points this season.

Sophomore forward Lia Anderson is WU's best player at 12 points and 9 rebounds per game. She has been held below her scoring average in her last five games with single digits in three of those contests. Four other Bulldogs average more than eight points but less than ten per game.

Wingate is the number one field goal percentage defense in the SAC, forcing opponents to shoot 37.7 percent on average and only allows the second-most points per game at 61.3.

"They are one of the best defensive teams in terms of points per game," Carson-Newman head coach Mike Mincey said. "At Cuddy, everyone knows it's a tough place to play down there. It will be battle. The game that happened at Carson-Newman and we won by that margin, I don't expect it to be like that down there. I expect it to be a nip and tuck game between two really good basketball teams."

Tipoff between the Lady Eagles and Bulldogs is set for 2:00 p.m. Coverage on the Eagle Sports Network begins at 1:45 with the AEC Countdown to Tipoff on MIX 105.5 (WSEV-FM, Sevierville) and online at cneagles.com/live.