Lenoir-Rhyne Upsets No. 8 Lady Eagles At Home Saturday

JEFFERSON CITY, Tenn. – Lenoir-Rhyne placed three players in double figures including a team-high 18 from senior guard Jami Safrit (Hickory, N.C.) as the Bears came away with a 78-67 upset victory over the No. 8 Lady Eagles of Carson-Newman Saturday evening at Holt Fieldhouse. L-R improves to 13-4 overall while C-N drops their first game of the year to fall to 16-1. Both teams are tied at 6-1 atop the South Atlantic Conference standings.

“We got outworked and out hustled and guards outplayed our guards,” said Head Coach Dean Walsh. “There was only one person that outplayed everybody and that was Zoriah Williams. She was phenomenal tonight.”

The two teams battled to a 22-all tie before Lenoir-Rhyne went on a 10-0 run to take their biggest lead of the first half. The Lady Eagles would go on a 16-9 run over the final 4:06 of the frame to close the Bears’ led to 43-40 at the half.

After the break, Lenoir-Rhyne held a solid lead until C-N scored eight unanswered points to draw the margin to 58-56. The Bears went on an immediate 7-2 run to push their lead to nine and were able to hold on for the 78-67 victory.

“We didn’t come ready to play,” continued Walsh. “We didn’t have a focus and I don’t know how that happens when you play a team that’s that strong. Maybe we were too hyped up. They had a week to prepare for us and it showed. They are the conference champs for a reason.”

L-R shot 49.1 percent (28-for-57) from the field while the Lady Eagles were only 26-for-67 (38.8%) from the floor.

Safrit led the Bears with 18 points and added six rebounds, four assists and two steals. Sophomore guard Cameron Sealey (Gastonia, N.C.) had 15 points and a team-high seven rebounds while freshman forward Precious Elkins (Conyers, Ga.) had 12 points as well.

Sophomore forward Zoriah Williams (Calera, Ala.) led all scorers with 23 points, going nine-for-12 from the field and added 11 rebounds. Senior forward Shari Buford (Hampton, Ga.) had her sixth double-double in nine contests as she tallied 13 points and 15 rebounds while junior guard Mandy Mendenhall (Kingston Springs, Tenn.) also reached double figures as she had 12 points as well.

Carson-Newman will play its second straight home contest for the first time since November when the Lady Eagles welcome the Lady Indians of Catawba to Holt Fieldhouse on Wednesday at 6:00 p.m.