No. 22 Lady Eagles Down Newberry, 86-73, Saturday At Holt Fieldhouse

JEFFERSON CITY, Tenn. – No. 22 Carson-Newman (12-0, 2-0 SAC) continued its winning streak Saturday afternoon as it defeated Newberry (8-4, 1-1 SAC) by an 86-73 score at Holt Fieldhouse. It was the Lady Eagles’ first home game since Nov. 21, and the win kept alive the team’s best start in school history.

“We got a good conference win against a strong Newberry program but we missed too many easy shots and free throws,” said Head Coach Dean Walsh. “I wasn’t pleased with the amount of defensive lapses we had, but I think not playing at home in five weeks had something to do with that.”

Newberry never led in the contest and found itself down 11-3 early. After the Scarlet-and-Gray closed the margin to one at the 8:03 mark, the Lady Eagles went on a 16-4 scoring run over the next 5:34 to claim its largest lead of the first half at 35-23. C-N would lead 41-30 at the break on a layup by junior guard Mandy Mendenhall (Kingston Springs, Tenn.) just before the buzzer.

After the intermission, Newberry closed the margin to five points after a 12-5 burst to start second half. Carson-Newman responded with a run of its own, outscoring the visitors 25-9 over the course of a seven-plus minute period to take a 21-point lead at 72-51, the team’s largest lead of the contest.

Though Newberry cut the deficit to 10 with 5:07 to play, it was the closest the game would be as the Lady Eagles went on to claim the 13-point victory.

“Our effort on both ends was terrific and we’re starting to shoot better from the perimeter,” continued Walsh. “Our depth made a huge impact on the game and you can see that as our bench outscored theirs 25-0. We pushed the tempo and wanted to use our press because we knew they weren’t going to like being pressured.”

C-N shot 47.8 percent (32-for-67) for the game and limited Newberry to just 24-for-64 (37.5%) from the floor.

Carson-Newman was led both offensively and defensively by senior forward Shari Buford (Hampton, Ga.) as she tallied 15 points, nine rebounds and five blocks, all team-highs. Mendenhall finished the contest with 13 points while senior guard Ashley Kyle (Jefferson City, Tenn.) added 12 points and a game-high seven assists.

Sophomore forward Zoriah Williams (Calera, Ala.) had 12 points and nine rebounds while freshman guard Candis Clear (Memphis, Tenn.) registered 11 points and five rebounds.

Newberry’s Helen McKinney (Owensboro, Ky.) led all scorers with a career-high 32 points while LeAnne Watson (Stone Mountain, Ga.) posted a double-double with 19 points and 12 rebounds. Amy Browne (Maroochydore, AUSTRALIA) had 12 points as well for Newberry.

“We want to get conditioned and healthy over the next week and come back to get ready for a Mars Hill team that has the ability to score a lot of points,” Walsh added.

Carson-Newman will next take the court on Saturday, January 9 when it travels to Mars Hill for a 4:00 p.m., contest while Newberry will play host to the Lions on Wednesday at 6:00 p.m.

-Joe Matthews, C-N Sports Information