Eagles Host Alabama-Huntsville on Saturday Night
Nov. 21, 2008
JEFFERSON CITY, Tenn. - The Carson-Newman Eagles return home to host the University of Alabama-Huntsville on Saturday night in Holt Fieldhouse. Tipoff is at 7 p.m.
Head coach Dale Clayton, who enters with 297 career wins, and the Eagles return home in search of a defense.
The Eagles, who are averaging 108 points per game through two outings, dropped Lees-McRae Tuesday night in Banner Elk, N.C., 99-93. However, in a win in which they fell a point shy of the century mark, the up-tempo Eagles' head man is looking for his defense to begin to feed his explosive offense.
"We have some guys who are still learning to guard," Clayton said of his team, which includes five newcomers playing regular minutes. "We'll continue to improve in our (full-court) press, but we're going to have to start seeing a stronger sense of urgency in our half-court defense."
Saturday night's game will be the first of slew of games this season in which the Eagles will face a contrasting style of basketball. UAH (0-1) will bring to town the "Princeton" motion offense under head coach Lennie Acuff, who is in his 16th year.
"It will be a good test for us," says Clayton of UAH offense. "They want to slow it down and we want to speed it up. The key will be who can establish tempo. We'll face the same challenge when we play Tusculum and Brevard, two other teams that will try to slow us down."
Alabama-Huntsville has played once this season, a 63-60 loss at Delta State on Monday.
C-N (1-1) was able to stave off a number of late flurries by Lees-McRae to hold off the Bobcats on Tuesday night.
Junior Jordan Dixon (Clinton, Tenn.) scored the Eagles finals eight points, including a steal-and-layup of an LMC inbounds pass with 12 seconds to play and the Eagles leading by two. Six Eagles finished in double figures.
Sophomore Kevin Hare (Lexington, S.C.) turned in his best night as an Eagle, finishing with a career high 13 points, while junior Joey Cameron (Tuskegee, Ala.) was noticeably absent in one key statistical category in the game's box score, minutes.
The Auburn transfer scored 12 points on 6-of-9 shooting, but fouled out in 13 minutes of action. He has scored 36 points on 14-of-19 from the floor in just 35 minutes as an Eagle.
Tickets for Saturday night's game are available at the door. The Eagles will return home on Tuesday night to host Milligan College at 7 p.m.
