Carson-Newman vs Emory & Henry Cinematic Recap
JEFFERSON CITY, Tenn. – Carson-Newman (20-6, 17-5 SAC) begins the final week of the regular season on the road as it pays a visit to Lincoln Memorial (11-14, 10-12 SAC) on Wednesday night at 5:30 p.m. inside Tex Turner Arena.
With two games left in the regular season, Carson-Newman has already reached the 20-win mark for the 23rd time in the program's 44-year history. Seven of those 20-win campaigns have come under the direction of Mike Mincey, all of which have been over the past nine seasons.
One win for Carson-Newman in its final two regular season games will lock up the number two seed in next week's South Atlantic Conference tournament. The Lady Eagles are one game ahead of third-place Wingate and own the tiebreaker thanks to a 2-0 record against the Bulldogs this season. C-N can get no higher than second and could finish as low as fourth in the standings. The advantage for the top two seeds is the day off between quarterfinal and semifinal games.
C-N is one win from matching its longest winning streak of the season. During this five-game winning streak, Mincey's team has won each game by 16 points or more and has scored 76 points in all five wins. C-N's six-game winning streak came back in November, when it won its first six games of the season.
Two Lady Eagles continue to make their way up the program's all-time charts. Lindsey Taylor (Maryville, Tenn.) has 1,602 career points and is 96 points from passing Leah Jackson's 1,737 third place scoring mark. The graduate student has 850 career rebounds, which is sixth in program history. Campbell Penland (Sevierville, Tenn.) continues to move her way up the program's scoring and three-point shooting ranks. With her three-pointer against E&H, she moved into third all-time in three-pointers made with 223. Mincey has now coached the top three shooters, with Braelyn Wykle and Tatum Burstrom at the top of the list. With her next basket, Penland will move into 12th all-time in scoring, passing Mika Wester. Top ten in scoring is within reach, just 43 points away from Haris Price's 1,377 career points.
Carson-Newman's loss in the first meeting this season with Lincoln Memorial snapped the program's second-longest home winning streak all-time at 20 games. The Railsplitters left Holt with a 71-67 win. In that first meeting, C-N got crushed on the glass, getting outrebounded 45-28 and allowed 14 offensive boards. Since that game, C-N has outrebounded eight of its past 11 opponents. LMU led by 12 at intermission, but the Lady Eagles used a big third quarter to tie the game heading to the fourth. The back and forth fourth period went to the Railsplitters who held C-N without a point in the final two minutes.
The Railsplitters will end their regular season with back-to-back home games starting on Wednesday against Carson-Newman and finishing with Limestone on Saturday. LMU is 11-14 overall and 10-12 in conference games, sitting in a tie with Limestone for seventh place in the league. Entering the final week of the regular season, the Railsplitters would be the seventh seed in next week's conference tournament. Depending on results this week, LMU can finish between the 7th and 9th spots in the standings. Only the top eight schools in the SAC standings qualify for the postseason tournament.
Since defeating C-N back on Jan 8, LMU has a 5-7 record while the Lady Eagles are 9-2.
Lincoln Memorial has a worse record at home than it does on the road, going just 4-6 in home games this season. It has won three of its past four games at Tex Turner Arena.
Kamil Collier and Alexa Smiddy played well in the first meeting, scoring 22 and 21 points, respectively. Collier grabbed 14 rebounds for a double-double. Both players score in double-figures on average.
The Railsplitters' defense has forced opponents to shoot just 25.3 percent from long range this season, best in the SAC and 15th-best nationally. Only one team has made seven or more threes on LMU this season.
Tipoff between the Lady Eagles and Railsplitters is set for 5:30 p.m. Coverage on the Eagle Sports Network begins at 5:15 with the AEC Countdown to Tipoff on MIX 105.5 (WSEV-FM, Sevierville) and online at cneagles.com/live.
