Turnovers Plague Eagles in 94-78 Loss at Mars Hill
MARS HILL, N.C. — The Carson-Newman men’s basketball team committed a season-high 27 turnovers, as the Eagles dropped an 94-78 decision to Mars Hill on Saturday afternoon in South Atlantic Conference action at Stanford Arena.
MARS HILL, N.C. — The Carson-Newman men’s basketball
team committed a season-high 27 turnovers, as the Eagles dropped an
94-78 decision to Mars Hill on Saturday afternoon in South Atlantic
Conference action at Stanford Arena.
With the loss, C-N falls to 6-7 on the season and 1-2 in the
conference, while the Lions improve to 6-6 and 2-1 in SAC play.
“It takes something out of everybody when you turn the ball
over like that,” C-N head coach Dale Clayton said. “We
were down five at the half and talked a lot about turnovers and
transition defense. If we could get those two corrected and keep
scoring on offense, we would be ok, but we didn’t get them
fixed and we stopped scoring.”
Junior guard J.J. Wesley (Mobile, Ala.) netted 18 points, including
four 3-pointers, to lead the Eagles, while Darron Maxtion
(Huntsville, Ala.) tossed in 17 points and Jordan Dixon (Clinton,
Tenn.) finished with 15 points.
Mars Hill guard Danny Sanders (Shelby, N.C.), who leads the league
in scoring, fired in a game-high 30 points, including six
3-pointers, to pace four Lions in double figures.
Dion Malachi (Shelby, N.C.) added 15 points, while Jarred Pickering
(Queensland, Australia) and Stoney Polite (Morganton, N.C.) pitched
in 12 and 11 points, respectively.
The teams battled to a 12-12 tie after six minutes of play, but
Mars Hill built an 11-point lead with a 14-3 run capped by a Robin
McElroy layup at the 8:04 mark.
C-N bounced back and outscored Mars Hill 18-10 during the next six
minutes. Wesley drained a 3-pointer from the corner with 2:35
remaining to trim the Lions’ lead to 36-33.
The Lions had 44-36 advantage with 28 seconds left, but Wesley
answered for the Eagles once again as he knocked down his third
3-pointer of the half to cut Mars Hill’s lead to 44-39 at the
break.
Mars Hill took control of the game in the second half. After a
Wesley 3-pointer pulled the Eagles to within 54-49, the Lions fired
back with a 14-2 run to take a 68-51 lead with 11:44 left in the
contest.
C-N was unable to pull closer than 15 points the rest of the
way
The Eagles return to action at home on Wednesday in a SAC matchup
against Wingate. Tipoff is scheduled for 8 p.m. at Holt Fieldhouse.
