Lady Eagles Set to Face No. 13 Tusculum in SAC Tournament Semifinals
March 6, 2009
JEFFERSON CITY, Tenn. -- The fourth-seeded Carson-Newman women's basketball team will take on top-seeded Tusculum College on Saturday in the semifinals of the 2009 Food Lion South Atlantic Conference Tournament.
Tipoff is set for 1 p.m. at Catawba Valley Community College in Hickory, N.C.
The Lady Eagles split with the Pioneers this season, winning 90-87 at home on Jan. 17 and falling at Tusculum 94-91 on Feb. 14. The winner of Saturday's contest will advance to the SAC finals to face the winner of No. 2 Lenoir-Rhyne and No. 3 Newberry on Sunday at 2 p.m.
C-N head coach Dean Walsh said his team is looking forward to the rubber match.
"It's exciting to be able to play your biggest rival in the SAC semifinals," Walsh said. "We have had two great games with them, and hopefully this one will be no different. We have our work cut out for us."
"I think we have the weapons to win the tournament. It's just a matter of weather or not we will make the commitment on the defensive end to want to win the tournament. We are the underdog in this thing and we like that role, so we might as well make the most of it."
Saturday's contest is a matchup between the top two scoring teams in the SAC. Both teams enter the contest averaging 84.8 points per game. In their last six games, the Lady Eagles have scored 92.3 points per contest.
C-N is coming off a 95-81 win over Wingate on Wednesday in which sophomore guard Mandy Mendenhall (Kingston Springs, Tenn.) fired in a game-high 22 points. Shari Buford (Hampton, Ga.) and Ashley Kyle (Jefferson City, Tenn.) added 21 points each in the win.
Buford has had two of her best outings this season against Tusculum. The junior forward is averaging 24.5 points and eight rebounds in the two meetings.
The 13th-ranked Pioneers advanced to the semifinals with a decisive 89-55 win over No. 8 seed Lincoln Memorial on Wednesday. Junior forward Stephany Neptune scored a season-high 21 points and pulled down a SAC tournament record 24 rebounds in the win.
Jasmine Gunn is the leader behind the Tusculum offense. The sophomore point guard is averaging 15 points per game and is second in the SAC in assists, dishing out 6.04 assists per game.
"Tusculum has the quickest point guard in the league in Jasmine Gunn, and when you surround her with shooters like (Ashli) Oliver and (Nikki) Van Dine, you have to decide defensively what's more important to stop, the penetration or the three."
"It doesn't stop there though when you add Neptune, who has improved her offensive game tremendously."
Radio: Tomorrow's game will be broadcast on WMTN-AM 1300 (Morristown, Tenn.) beginning at 1 p.m.
