Eagles rally to defeat Anderson, 75-71, for fourth straight victory
ANDERSON, S.C. — The Carson-Newman men's basketball team rallied from an 11-point second-half deficit to knock off Anderson University, 75-71, on Saturday afternoon in South Atlantic Conference action at the Abney Athletic Center.
ANDERSON, S.C. — The Carson-Newman men's basketball team rallied from an 11-point second-half deficit to knock off Anderson University, 75-71, on Saturday afternoon in South Atlantic Conference action at the Abney Athletic Center.
The Eagles trailed 68-57 with 9:22 remaining but they closed out the contest on an 18-3 run behind eight points from junior guard Bradley Tumer (Mt. Dora, Fla.) to come away with their fourth straight SAC victory and fifth straight win on the road.
C-N improves to 8-8 overall and 5-3 in the conference, while Anderson drops to 11-7 on the season and 5-3 in SAC play.
The Eagles shot 56.6 percent (30-of-53) for the game, including 8-of-22 from behind the arc. Anderson shot 42.4 percent (28-of-66) from the floor and was 9-of-30 from 3-point range. C-N held a slight edge over the Trojans in rebounding, 33-30.
Tumer finished the day with 10 points and five assists for the Eagles, while junior Antonio Sullivan (Louisville, Ky.) and freshman Ishmael Sanders (Cleveland, Tenn.) netted 16 points apiece. Sanders was 5-of-8 from 3-point range. John Holleman (Petersburg, Va.) and Kevin Leatherwood (Charlottesville, Va.) added nine points each.
Nick Trull (Charlotte, N.C.) finished with 14 points to lead the Trojans, while Brandon Young (Belmont, N.C.), Taylor Shugart (Rock Hill, S.C.) and Trey Britton (Alpharetta, Ga.) had 13 points each in the loss.
The Trojans jumped out to a 4-0 lead behind a pair of baskets from Shugart, but C-N responded with an 8-2 run capped off by a layup by Crane that gave the Eagles an 8-6 lead with 14:11 remaining.
Anderson answered by outscoring the Eagles 26-12 during the next eight minutes to build its biggest lead of the half at 32-20 on a jumper by Britton with 5:50 left.
But C-N closed out the half on a 16-2 run, as a jumper by Sullivan with five seconds left trimmed Anderson's lead to 38-36 at the half.
The Trojans opened the second half on a 14-5 run to push their lead to 52-41 on a layup by Young with 15:35 left.
The Eagles trimmed Anderson's lead down to 62-57 after a layup by Erwin Staten (Huntsville, Ala.) off a steal by Kevin Hare (Lexington, S.C.) midway through the half.
Anderson's Oskars Ernsteins (Rigas, Latvia) then connected on back-to-back 3-pointers to push the Trojans' lead back to 11, but Sullivan knocked down a jumper to spark C-N's game-winning 18-3 run.
The Eagles return to action at home on Wednesday against No. 10 Lincoln Memorial. Tipoff is set for 8 p.m. at Holt Fieldhouse.
