Eagles hot early, often in win at Brevard, 84-63

Brevard, N.C. – Carson-Newman's Antoine Davis scored a game high 25 points and the Eagles made 12-of-24 three-point attempts to roll past Brevard College on Wednesday night in Boshamer Gymnasium, 84-63.

C-N raced to a 21-6 lead to open the game and never looked back to pick up its third consecutive South Atlantic Conference road win. With the win, C-N moves to 13-8 on the season and 6-5 in SAC play, while Brevard falls to 3-18 and 2-9.

The Eagles made 5-of-8 three-point attempts to open the game as C-N built a 20-point lead just passed the midway point off the first half at 31-11.

Davis hit six three-pointers in the contest to lead all scorers with 25 points as the Eagles shot 53.6 percent (30-56) from the floor in the game. Ishmael Sanders added 15 points, while Marcellous Perez and Collin Crane were also in double-digits for Carson-Newman in the win.

Carson-Newman went up by as many as 22 in the first half as Perez connected on a three-pointer at the 5:01 mark to give the Eagles the 38-16 lead. Brevard battled back as Michael Gist connected on a three-pointer in the final minute of the half, sending the teams into the break with Carson-Newman holding the 43-26 lead.

The Eagles extended the lead to 24 on a Davis three-pointer with 15:55 to play, but the Tornados battled back as Gaither Hendrix answered with a trey of his own on the following BC possession. The three-pointer sparked an 11-0 Brevard run spanning the next four minutes as five different Brevard players scored during the stretch as the Tornados cut the lead to 55-42 with 11:51 to play, but Davis ended the Brevard streak with a three-pointer and the Eagles pulled away late in recording the 84-63 victory.

Brevard (3-18, 2-9 SAC) went on an 11-0 run in the second half, capped by a pair of free throws by Darius Moose to cut into the Carson-Newman (13-8, 6-5 SAC) lead, but backed by 17 second half points by Antoine Davis, the Eagles pulled away from the Tornados in recording the season sweep over Brevard.

Moose led the Tornados with 12 points in the contest, going a perfect 6-for-6 from the free throw line, while Dominique Pickett added nine points in the loss. Aleksandar Vasiljevic scored six points and pulled down nine rebounds for the Tornados in the contest.

The Eagles turned the ball over only 10 times in the game and were in single digits until a shot clock violation in the final minute. They also shot 53.5 percent (30-of-56) from the floor.

Davis caps a three-game road stretch in which he led the Eagles with an 18.2 point per game average in leading the Eagles to a 3-0 mark.

Carson-Newman returns to action on Saturday against Wingate University. Tipoff is at 4 p.m. in Holt Fieldhouse.