Eagles Roll Past Milligan College, 110-86
Nov. 25, 2008
JEFFERSON CITY – Six Carson-Newman players scored in double figures and the Eagles forced 27 turnovers en route to a 110-86 victory over Milligan College at Holt Fieldhouse Tuesday night.
Kevin Hare (Lexington, S.C.) and Adam Plavich (Dalton, Ga.) led the offensive barrage with 14 points apiece, followed by Andrew Johnson (Calro, Ga.) with 13 and Jesse McMurray (Weber City, Va.) with 12. Darron Maxtion (Huntsville, Ala.) and Justin Walker (Knoxville, Tenn.) contributed 11 points each to the win.
"Anytime you get the win, it's a good thing," said Carson-Newman head coach Dale Clayton. "To win by 24 points - that's especially good."
Clayton was coaching against his alma mater for the first time in nearly 15 years. He said the fact that he was a former Milligan player in the 1970's wansn't a factor in motivating his team for the game.
"To be honest, I didn't really think about it that much," said Clayton. "My only focus was to get these young men ready to come out here and win a ball game."
Carson-Newman (2-2) took 90 shots in the contest (44-of-90), including an 11-of-35 effort from behind the arc. The Eagles are averaging just over 105 points per game this season – almost 20 ppg more than the next highest scoring team in the South Atlantic Conference.
Carson-Newman did commit 21 turnovers Tuesday night, but it was slightly down from their 25 per game average.
"Anytime you play at a fast pace like we do, you are gonna have turnovers," Clayton said. "We'd like to get it down around 16 or so per game."
"We had 21 turnovers, but you look at the stats and we took 26 more shots than they did and had 17 steals. So we created more opportunities than we gave away tonight, I felt like."
The game was tied at 37-37 with 4:37 remaining in the first half, when the Eagles went on a 24-10 barrage to end the stanza. Dixon had eight points in the outburst, including a pair of three-pointers, while Maxtion added seven points.
Carson-Newman extended its lead to as many as 29 in the second half before Clayton emptied his bench.
Ernest Saunders finished with a game-high 28 points for Milligan, followed by Jeff Barnes with 18 and Darrell Miller with 14. The Buffaloes were 34-of-64 from the field and 2-of-7 from three-point range.
Carson-Newman held a 46-34 advantage in rebounding, led by Maxtion with nine and Joey Cameron (Tuskegee, Ala.) with six.
The Eagles will travel up Highway 11E to Greeneville this weekend to compete in the Tusculum Classic. Carson-Newman is scheduled to play Georgia College at 8 p.m. on Friday, followed by a 2 p.m. contest on Saturday against West Alabama.
