No. 10 Lady Eagles Soar Past Tusculum, 90-77, Saturday In SAC Action

GREENEVILLE, Tenn. – Junior guard Mandy Mendenhall (Kingston Springs, Tenn.) poured on a season-high 26 points Saturday afternoon as the 10th-ranked Lady Eagles raced past Tusculum in South Atlantic Conference action at Pioneer Arena. With the win, C-N moves to 15-0 overall and 5-0 in league play while the Pioneers are now 9-6 with a 2-3 mark in the SAC.

“We hit our free throws and turned them over 28 times with 19 steals. We also had more assists than we did turnovers. We did a great job of playing team ball,” said Head Coach Dean Walsh after the game. “I’m not happy about how we rebounded toward the end and how we are still relaxing once we get a lead. We have to work on not having lapses to be the team that we want to be.”

Tusculum led early, but a jumper from the right side by Mendenhall gave the Lady Eagles the lead for good at 11-10 with 12:54 to go in the first half. Carson-Newman extended its lead to 17 (42-25) later in the period, outscoring Tusculum 14-1 over a 4:16 span. The Lady Eagles would carry a 44-29 advantage into the locker room.

After the break, Carson-Newman put together back-to-back runs of 15-6 and 12-2 to lead by 25 with 10:07 to go in the game at 73-48. The Lady Eagles controlled the contest as they led by at least 20 for over six minutes during the second half. TC scored the final eight points to close the margin to the final 90-77 score.

“Shari, Mandy and Kyle were all very efficient shooting tonight, we saw that they had the hot hand and we got them the ball,” continued Walsh.

Mendenhall led all scorers with 26 points, 17 coming before the break, and added eight rebounds and seven steals. C-N senior forward Shari Buford (Hampton, Ga.) recorded her fifth double-double in seven games with 15 points and 12 rebounds and added six blocks while senior guard Ashley Kyle (Jefferson City, Tenn.) posted 17 points and five assists.

“It’s a very rare thing to have two players come close to a triple-double in the same game,” added Walsh. “We got numbers from our big three tonight, and our bench was there to give us that little extra when we needed it.”

Seven other Lady Eagles combined for 32 points in the win led by freshman forward Tasha Phillips (Clarkrange, Tenn.), who tallied eight in the contest.

Catherine Hintz (Hastings, Minn.) and Jasmine Gunn (Nashville, Tenn.) combined for 43 of Tusculum’s points, with 33 of those coming in the second half. Hintz had a double-double with 23 points and 16 rebounds while Gunn had 20 points of her own.

“We have some things to clean up before we play Brevard on Wednesday but we’re going to do that and come out ready to play another road game,” concluded Walsh.

Carson-Newman returns to action on Wednesday when it plays away from home for the 10th time in 12 games. The Lady Eagles will take on the Tornados of Brevard College at Boshamer Gymnasium at 6:00 p.m.