C-N Travels to Mars Hill Saturday
Feb. 6, 2009
MARS HILL, N.C. -- The Carson-Newman basketball teams will travel to Mars Hill Saturday to square off in a South Atlantic Conference doubleheader at Stanford Arena.
The women's game will tip off at 2 p.m., followed by the men's contest at 4 p.m.
Radio: The games will be broadcast on WMTN-AM 1300 (Morristown, Tenn.), as well webcast at www.wmtnradio.com.
Live Stats: Are available at Live Stats (Courtesy Mars Hill Sports Information).
The Lady Eagles (15-5, 6-3 SAC) are coming off a 68-64 conference win over Newberry last Saturday and enter the contest ranked No. 4 in the NCAA Division II Southeast Region poll, which was released on Wednesday.
Mars Hill (12-9, 5-5) enters the game on a two-game winning streak, including an 81-80 victory over Newberry on Wednesday.
"Mars Hill is another tough road test," Lady Eagle head coach Dean Walsh said. "(Mars Hill) is coming off a big road win at Newberry, and we have to start playing with more focus on the road."
Carson-Newman is just 1-3 on the road in SAC play, and needs a win to keep pace in the SAC standings and remain near the top of the region poll. C-N is currently third in the conference, sitting two games back of first place Lenoir-Rhyne.
C-N won the first meeting between the two at home on Jan. 10, 95-78. Despite the 17-point win, Walsh sees a number of ways his team must improve Saturday.
"We must keep them out of the paint," Walsh add. "They penetrated too much and too easily last game. We have to box out better as well. They are a good rebounding team and we can't give good shooters a second chance. We also have to get the tempo us, pressure the ball, and pound it inside to win."
In the men's contest, the Eagles (6-13, 3-5) look to get back on the winning track as they have lost two straight games, including an 87-83 defeat at the hands of Newberry last Saturday. C-N defeated Mars Hill 89-81 at home earlier this season.
The Eagles have suffered several close defeats over the last two weeks, losing their last three games by a combined 14 points.
"The big thing for us is getting some confidence," C-N head coach Dale Clayton said. "We've had three games here lately where we had a chance to make a shot to win the game or tie the game and we've not made any of them. At some point we've got to make a shot to help our confidence coming down the stretch."
The Lions (13-7, 4-6), which slipped past Newberry 74-66 on Wednesday, have won three out of their last four games.
The Eagles will need one of their best road performances of the season to come away with a win. Mars Hill has lost just two games at home this season (7-2), while C-N has struggled to a 1-7 road record.
