Eagles angle for season sweep of Wasps
January 23, 2024

Eagles angle for season sweep of Wasps

JEFFERSON CITY, Tenn. – Carson-Newman (13-4, 6-3 South Atlantic Conference) will try to shrug off a last-second loss Saturday to Wingate when it heads to Emory & Henry (4-13, 1-8 SAC) for an early 5:30 p.m. tip Wednesday at the King Center. 

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VIDEO: Emory & Henry Cinematic

C-N Game Notes

JEFFERSON CITY, Tenn. – Carson-Newman (13-4, 6-3 South Atlantic Conference) will try to shrug off a last-second loss Saturday to Wingate when it heads to Emory & Henry (4-13, 1-8 SAC) for an early 5:30 p.m. tip Wednesday at the King Center. 

"We've moved forward, that's the nature of competition," Carson-Newman head men's basketball coach Chuck Benson said. "Hopefully, we are prepared to take the lessons learned from the game against Wingate and apply them against Emory & Henry while taking lessons learned against the Wasps two weeks ago and also applying them. It's always difficult to win on the road in the SAC."

Carson-Newman won the first meeting between the two teams two weeks ago, 105-77 inside Holt Fieldhouse. 

C-N proceeded to bolt out to its highest-scoring and hottest-shooting half of basketball in six years over the final 20 minutes en route to the 28-point win. 

Carson-Newman singed the nets in the second half, shooting 72.7 percent (24-of-33) from the field and 58.7 (7-of-12) from three while dropping 67 after the break. It's the highest shooting percentage and the most points scored in a half since the Eagles shot 71 percent and scored 67 points in the first half of the 2018 season against Lees-McRae.

For the first time in program history, Carson-Newman had four players finish with at least 20 points.

Jack Browder (Kingsport, Tenn.) and Ben Beeker (Hendersonville, N.C.) led all scorers with 22 apiece.  Hubbard followed with 21, while Nick Brenegan (Greenville, S.C.) added in 20.

Emory & Henry has dropped six straight and is winless in 2024. 

Nick Brenegan's 5.06 made triples per game are the most in the country.  He has buried 81 this season. also first nationally among all divisions by pure volume.  If he were to maintain this pace, he would break Ish Sanders' single-season record of 99 and become the first Eagle with triple-digit threes in a seaosn.  There have been 11 triple-digit three-point seasons in SAC history.  He also ranks first nationally and tops in the SAC in percentage at 52.6 percent for the season. 

Brenegan has made more threes this season than 22 teams in NCAA Division II.  His 81 threes are already the ninth most in a single-season in Carson-Newman basketball history.  A four-three game would move him into the top five for the most threes in a single season with Ish Sanders and Charles Clark (85). 

Brenegan has buried multiple threes in every game this season, but the Lincoln Memorial contest.  He's made a three in 23 straight games dating back to last season. He has made at least three threes in 10 of the last 12 games.

Brenegan, John Zhao, Jack Browder and Trey Hubbard account for a third of the top 12 in the SAC in scoring.  The quartet combines to average 72.7 points per game.  They average more points per game than 90 NCAA Division II schools do as a team.  

Carson-Newman is one of the top rebounding teams in the country.  The Eagles have outrebounded every team they have faced with the exception of Tusculum. Carson-Newman is ninth nationally and number one in the league in total rebounds, averaging 42.00 per game.  C-N's 12.2 rebounding margin ranks number one in the nation. Carson-Newman had produced three, three-game streaks where they outrebounded their foes by double digits in Chuck Benson's first 13 years with the program. The Eagles have done it three times this season. Carson-Newman has outrebounded five straight teams by double-digits, the greatest rebounding streak in school history. 

Carson-Newman has been on another level offensively at home.  C-N has topped triple digits in seven of its nine home games. The Eagles average 102.9 points at home, while shooting 55.2 percent from the field and 46.4 percent from three. On the road, those numbers drop to 78.0 points per game with 45.4 percent shooting from the field and 39.5 percent shooting from three. 

This iteration of the Eagles has matched the 2017-18 team for the most 100-point performances in a season in the NCAA era with eight.  Carson-Newman hasn't had double-digit, triple-digit performances in a single-season since Chris Jones was coaching in the 1980s. The 1970-71 team holds the record with 12 such games. C-N hasn't had a 100-point peformance in a road game since 2019, a 103-101 loss on opening night in 2019 at Lees-McRae.

Carson-Newman gets a crack at its 300th league win all-time.  Carson-Newman is looking to join Wingate and Lenoir-Rhyne as the only programs with 300 conference victories in the history of the SAC. 

Tipoff between the Eagles and Wasps is set for 5:30 p.m. Wednesday. Coverage on the Eagle Sports Network begins at 5:15 with the AEC Countdown to Tipoff on Mountain Talk 106.3 (WPFT-FM, Sevierville) and online at cneagles.com/live. 

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