September 18, 2013

Sporting News lists C-N basketball as program on the rise, Davis and Sanders make preseason All-America

JEFFERSON CITY, Tenn. – The Sporting News has picked Carson-Newman’s men’s basketball program as a team poised for a possible breakthrough season. In addition, senior guards Antoine Davis (Rustburg, Va.) and Ish Sanders (Cleveland, Tenn.) were named preseason honorable mention All-Americans.

JEFFERSON CITY, Tenn. – The Sporting News has picked Carson-Newman's men's basketball program as a team poised for a possible breakthrough season. In addition, senior guards Antoine Davis (Rustburg, Va.) and Ish Sanders (Cleveland, Tenn.) were named preseason honorable mention All-Americans.

Carson-Newman, West Liberty, Metro State and Colorado School of Mines were the only schools in the country with two players selected to the preseason All-America team.

C-N, Montevallo (Troran Brown) and Lincoln Memorial (Vincent Bailey) are the only schools from the Southeast Region with preseason All-Americans in the magazine.

"It's nice that we're developing a reputation," Carson-Newman head coach Chuck Benson said. "But all we're focused on as we go through this season is getting better with an eye on having something that we can be proud of when we finish, as opposed to when we started."

The Eagles won 20 games last year, the first 20-win season in a decade, before bowing out in the semifinals of the South Atlantic Conference tournament.

Davis became the school's first men's basketball All-American in a decade. Davis was been named to the Division II Bulletin's Honorable Mention All-America team making him the Eagles' first such honoree since Kyle Gribble in 2002-2003.

The SAC's player of the year, Davis led the South Atlantic Conference in scoring (18.7 points per game) and made field goals (184). He had 506 points in 27 games, a starter in all of them, and enters 2013 seven points away from joining the 1,000-point club at Carson-Newman.

As a junior, he scored double figures in 20 consecutive contests, and if not for a game at Hiwassee in which he injured his foot and only played five minutes and scored three points, that string of games would be 29 and include every game of the season.

He has torched two opponents for 30 points. He went for a career best 36 against Queens (12/18). He hit a career high 13 field goals and a career high eight threes in that game. At Newberry (2/21), Davis crested 30 again, this time scoring 31 on 10-for-18 shooting. In that game he set a career mark for made free throws with eight. He scored double figures in 27 games this year, 20 points in 12 and has had at least five rebounds in 22 of them. A two-time South Atlantic Conference Player of the Week award winner, Davis became the first C-N player since 2003-2004 with multiple 30-point games in a single season.

"Those guys do a good job of keeping this kind of accolade in perspective," Benson said. "They recognize that this is a preseason honor, and what matters most are those postseason accolades. We're glad for them, but also take it perspective for what it is."

Sanders was a first team All-SAC selection a year ago. The sharp-shooting guard finished second in the conference in scoring this season at 18.7 points per game and made 3.7 three-pointers per game, the second-most in the nation.

He finished the year with 520 points, which topped Antoine Davis by 14 points. A SAC Player of the Week award winner, Sanders turned in four consecutive 25-point performances, the longest such streak at Carson-Newman this century.

He was one of three SAC players with consecutive 25-point performances, but the only player who went beyond two. Sanders set a season high with 33 points in a home win against then league-leading Anderson (2/23).

The shooting guard went 11-for-22 from the field and 9-for-18 from three in that game. It was the fourth most threes in a single game in SAC history. In that contest, Sanders set Carson-Newman's single season record for three pointers made - the previous record was 86, Sanders stands at 99 - which ranks fourth in the all-time SAC annals.

The Eagles open their season Nov. 15 against NCAA tournament participant Barton.

-CN-