Hot shooting LMU fells Eagles
February 26, 2014

Hot shooting LMU fells Eagles

HARROGATE, Tenn. – No. 13 Lincoln Memorial (23-2, 19-2 SAC) drained seven of the first eight three point attempts they took en route to a 77-60 victory over Carson-Newman (18-7, 15-6 SAC) Wednesday night at Tex Turner Arena.

Chuck Benson postgame interview

HARROGATE, Tenn. – No. 13 Lincoln Memorial (23-2, 19-2 SAC) drained seven of the first eight three point attempts they took en route to a 77-60 victory over Carson-Newman (18-7, 15-6 SAC) Wednesday night at Tex Turner Arena.

The loss ends a seven-game win streak for the Eagles – the longest in the Southeast Region before the final buzzer hit. 

"It was so far outside their norm that it was frustrating to deal with," Carson-Newman head men's basketball coach Chuck Benson said. "Especially the first eight minutes of the game, I felt that we just didn't have the amount of intensity with our closeouts that I would have liked to have had. But credit LMU too, they drained the shots."

Carson-Newman split the season series with the Railsplitters and can do no worse than a third seed in the South Atlantic Conference tournament. 

LMU led by 19 at times in the first half before the Eagles held the Railsplitters eight minutes without a field goal and used a 15-2 run to trim the deficit to three with 14 minutes left in the second half. 

However, LMU would push out an 8-1 run to move the lead back to double digits with 10 minutes to play.  The Eagles would draw no closer. 

"We challenged our guys at the half to come out and methodically chip away at it," Benson said. "When we got it to three, for whatever reason, I felt like we got away from our inside out approach and then stopped making shots around the basket."

The final score is the most lopsided loss for the Eagles this season. 

The Eagles finished with four players in double figures, led by Ish Sanders (Cleveland, Tenn.) 14 points.  The high mark for points is  the lowest point total and just the third under 20 points for a leading scorer for the Eagles this season. 

Jared Johnson (Springfield, Mass.) added 13, Sawyer Williams (Owenton, Ky,) had 12 and Carson Brooks (Knoxville, Tenn.) contributed 11.  Antoine Davis (Rustburg, Va.) was held to seven points on three-for-10 shooting. 

The Eagles conclude the regular season Saturday at Newberry with a 4 p.m. tipoff from Eleazer Arena against the Wolves.  Pregame coverage on the Eagle Sports Network starts at 3:45 p.m. with the Countdown to Tipoff on 106.3 ESPN Radio The Zone (WPFT-FM, Sevierville) and online at cneagles.com/live. 

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