Familiar foes meet again at the SAC Tournament
ROCK HILL, S.C. – For the fifth straight season, four-seeded Carson-Newman (20-9) will matchup with eight-seeded Anderson (13-16) at the South Atlantic Conference Women’s Basketball Championships. The two teams will play for a spot in the conference title game today at noon.
| Final | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | T |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
|
20 | 18 | 15 | 14 | 67 |
|
|
24 | 14 | 22 | 13 | 73 |
ROCK HILL, S.C. – For the fifth straight season, four-seeded Carson-Newman (20-9) will matchup with eight-seeded Anderson (13-16) at the South Atlantic Conference Women's Basketball Championships. The two teams will play for a spot in the conference title game today at noon.
C-N improved its record to 21-5 in the quarterfinal round by outscoring UVA Wise by 20 in the second half to win 73-58. Overall, C-N is now 34-32 in the SAC Women's Basketball Championships, with eight championship game appearances and three championships. The Lady Eagles are one of three teams along with Catawba and Wingate to participate in each SAC Tournament since the first iteration in 1991.
The Lady Eagles earned their 20th win of the season in Thursday's win. The program now has 24 20-win campaigns and eight in the past decade.
Friday's night meeting with Anderson will be the fifth straight season that Carson-Newman and Anderson meet in the South Atlantic Conference Tournament. The two sides met in the conference championship game in 2022, in the quarterfinals during the 2023 and 2024 seasons and past season's came in the semifinals. C-N is 2-2 during this recent SAC postseason stretch against AU and lost 89-65 in last year's semifinal game. Counting the NCAA Tournament as well, the two teams have met six times in the postseason over the last four years.
C-N leads the all-time series 25-17 with wins in four of the five neutral site contests. Friday's afternoon affair will be the 11th meeting in the past three seasons.
All-SAC forward Mattie Nuckolls (Chatsworth, Ga.) has become of the best defenders in the SAC this season. She leads the league in with 61 blocks, the fourth-most in a single-season in program history. For her career, she has 109 rejections, sixth-best in program history. Nuckolls is just 12 away from moving into the top five.
In 59 career games with C-N, Jennifer Sullivan (Knoxville, Tenn.) has made 138 three-pointers, the eighth-most in program history. The sharpshooter is 20 more triples away from Kayla Marosites for seventh on the three-point shooting list. Sullivan's 40.8 career three-point percentage is third-best all-time in program history. This season, she has drilled 77 triples which is the second-most in the league.
After dishing out nine assists in the quarterfinal win over Wise, Keeleigh Rogers (Knoxville, Tenn.) now has 116 for the season. It's the most assists in a season since Mika Wester dished out 130 during the 2017-18 year. Rogers' 116 is 15th-most in a single-season and is just 14 away from moving into the top ten.
Anderson was the last team to make the South Atlantic Conference tournament, earning the number eight seed and made history on Wednesday. The Trojans became just the second eight-seed in league history to defeat a one-seed, never trailing in a 79-63 win over a Lenoir-Rhyne team that had won 19 straight games and held the third-longest active winning streak in DII. Anderson is just 13-16 overall and won nine conference games in the regular season.
The conference's newcomer of the year this season led AU's charge. Ciara Harris poured in 21 points and drilled four triples to lead the team in scoring. A lot of the reason for AU's upset win was its absurd shooting from long range. They made a season-high 10 of their 16 triples in the win.
Prior to winning their regular season finale, the Trojans had lost five straight games after beating Carson-Newman on Feb. 7 at home 84-76.
Tip off is set for noon from the Rock Hill Sports and Events Center. Coverage on the Eagle Sports Network begins at 11:45 with the AEC Countdown to Tipoff on MIX 105.5 (WSEV-FM, Sevierville) and online at cneagles.com/live. A live stream of the contest is available with a subscription to FloSports. A live camera of the broadcast crew "On Press Row" will also be available on YouTube.
Team Stats
Anderson (S.C.)
| Game Statistics | Anderson (S.C.) | Carson-Newman |
|---|---|---|
| Field Goals | (25-67) | (22-55) |
| Field Goal % | 37.3% | 40.0% |
| Rebounds | 33 | 42 |
| Assists | 14 | 13 |
| Turnovers | 7 | 12 |
| Pts off Turnovers | 7 | 13 |
| 2nd Chance Pts | 8 | 7 |
| Pts in the Paint | 30 | 22 |
| Fastbreak Pts | 2 | 2 |
| Bench Pts | 19 | 0 |
