Lady Eagles host Wingate Wednesday in first round of SAC Tournament
March 3, 2009
JEFFERSON CITY, Tenn. -- The Carson-Newman women's basketball team will host Wingate Wednesday night in the first round of the 2009 Food Lion South Atlantic Conference Tournament.
Tipoff is set for 7 p.m. at Holt Fieldhouse.
C-N (18-9, 9-7 SAC) enters the contest as the tournament's No. 4 seed,while Wingate (18-9, 9-7) is the No. 5 seed.
The matchup is a rematch of Saturday's regular season finale in which the Lady Bulldogs defeated the Lady Eagles 99-90. C-N won the first meeting 95-93 at Wingate on Jan. 14.
C-N shot 61.4 percent from the floor in Saturday's contest, but 22 turnovers were too much for the Lady Eagles to overcome. C-N coach Dean Walsh said his team must do a better job of taking care of the basketball on Wednesday or its postseason run could be short lived.
"We can score on them as we have shot over 60 percent in three of the four halves we have played," Walsh said. "We also have to cut down the careless turnovers, especially in the first half where we have committed 36 of our 48 turnovers against them. It should be a fun one to watch. I just hope we are having more fun when it's over."
Wednesday's game features two of the top offenses in the SAC. C-N is second in the conference in scoring with an average of 84.4 points per game and has scored 90 or more points in 14 games this season. Wingate is the third best scoring offense in the SAC, averaging 80.4 points per game.
Lady Eagles junior forward Shari Buford will be looking to stay on a roll after averaging 17.6 points and 8.7 rebounds in her last seven outings. Buford scored 23 points and grabbed eight rebounds against Wingate on Saturday.
Wingate's guard duo of Anna Atkinson and Kurie Washington has provided the Lady Eagles with trouble in both matchups this season. Washington scored a career-high 30 points in Saturday's win and tossed in 22 points in the first meeting this season.
Atkinson is averaging 20 points and six steals per game against the Lady Eagles this season. After collecting six steals in Saturday's win, Atkinson became the SAC's all-time steals leader with 355.
"If we want to win, we have to defend better," Walsh said. "(Atkinson) is an intelligent player and will get hers. As for Washington, we need to do a better job of keeping her off the free-throw line. We need someone to step up and take charge of the defensive effort Wednesday."
C-N and Wingate met in the semifinals of last year's SAC tournament. The Lady Bulldogs defeated the Lady Eagles 75-61 before eventually winning the title over Tusculum.
The winner of Wednesday's contest will face the winner of top-seeded Tusculum and No. 8 Lincoln Memorial on Saturday at Catawba Valley Community College in Hickory, N.C. at 1 p.m.
