Division title on the line Saturday against Cobras
JEFFERSON CITY, Tenn. – Entering the final game of the regular season, Carson-Newman needs one win to seal up the Mountain Division Championship in the South Atlantic Conference playing host to Coker on Saturday at Holt Fieldhouse for a 2 p.m. tip-off.
| Final | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | T |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
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26 | 20 | 21 | 13 | 80 |
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19 | 15 | 18 | 27 | 79 |
JEFFERSON CITY, Tenn. – Entering the final game of the regular season, Carson-Newman needs one win to seal up the Mountain Division Championship in the South Atlantic Conference playing host to Coker on Saturday at Holt Fieldhouse for a 2 p.m. tip-off.
"We've been talking about this whole week," Carson-Newman coach Mike Mincey said. "It's not March quite yet but for us it is March. These are really important games. Coker is a good basketball team. They have challenged a bunch of people this year."
Overall, the Lady Eagles have won six regular-season crowns with this the first year of the new format going to divisional standings. If Carson-Newman (17-10, 12-5) wins, it would mark the third year in a row with a conference title after winning the regular season in 2020-21 and the tournament in 2021-22. In the history of the program, the team has never had titles in successive seasons with the best run being two regular-season titles in a three-year stretch from 1989 to 1992.
Carson-Newman's streak of 10 straight wins at Holt Fieldhouse is the 16th-longest active mark in the country and second-longest in the region behind Catawba (15) after Georgia Southwestern lost to Clayton State and UNC Pembroke lost to Belmont Abbey this week. Glenville State paces the country with a 33-game stretch with the next-closest margin being Nebraska-Kearney's 18-game string.
Saturday marks the 19th meeting between the Lady Eagles and Coker (10-15, 5-12) as Mincey's crew has a commanding 16-2 lead with wins in each of the last 13 outings. The average differential in that span has been just south of 30 points per game with a trio of 100-point efforts and 10 with at least 80. Coker's last win over the Lady Eagles came on Jan. 17, 2015 in Hartsville, a 68-61 win.
Last season the club won 93-65 at Holt Fieldhouse and 85-65 at the DeLoach Center in the final game of the regular season watching Lindsey Taylor (Maryville, Tenn.) scored 35 points helping the Lady Eagles make 61 percent of their shots from the floor.
Coach Melissa DeVore's team is playing its best basketball to end the year winning five of the last eight games after opening the year 5-12. Of the 12 league losses this year, the Cobras have lost only one, an 82-75 setback to UVA Wise on Nov. 30, to a team that won't reach the conference tournament.
Coker is the No. 2 defense in the league this season in terms of field-goal percentage holding clubs to 36 percent shooting for the year. Meanwhile at the offensive end, the Snakes are 10th in efficiency at 39 percent for the year but has made better than 43 percent in three games in a row.
Turnovers have been an issue averaging 19 per game for the year but it has had 16 or fewer in four straight games and after posting more than 20 per game in the first 11, the team is posting less than 17 in the past 14. The Cobras are dishing out 9.9 assists per game for the season with 12 single-digit efforts.
No player is averaging double figures for the campaign but five sit at at least eight points per game. Dominique Rodriguez paces the group with 9.4 points seeing that rise to 12 over her last six with seven double-digit games in the last eight. Valicia Demeritte is the second-leading scorer with 9.3 points per game but she has been in single digits in nine of her last 11.
Broadcast coverage airs on Mountain Talk 106.3 FM and cneagles.com/live starting at 1:45 p.m. with "The AEC Countdown to Tip-Off" courtesy of the Eagle Sports Network. Video is available with your subscription to FloSports.
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Team Stats
Coker
| Game Statistics | Coker | Carson-Newman |
|---|---|---|
| Field Goals | (28-52) | (24-50) |
| Field Goal % | 53.8% | 48.0% |
| Rebounds | 23 | 24 |
| Assists | 21 | 17 |
| Turnovers | 22 | 22 |
| Pts off Turnovers | 20 | 26 |
| 2nd Chance Pts | 4 | 7 |
| Pts in the Paint | 32 | 28 |
| Fastbreak Pts | 4 | 15 |
| Bench Pts | 34 | 28 |
