REGION CHAMPS! Lady Eagles clamp down No. 18 Lenoir-Rhyne to claim Southeast Regional Crown
HARROGATE, Tenn. – Defense proved championship-worthy for fifth-seeded Carson-Newman (24-10), as the Lady Eagles delivered a defensive masterclass, shutting down second-seeded No. 18 Lenoir-Rhyne (26-6) to capture the Southeast Regional title Monday night at Tex Turner Arena.
| Final | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | T |
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17 | 17 | 18 | 20 | 72 |
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13 | 11 | 14 | 15 | 53 |
VIDEO: Mattie Nuckolls Interview
VIDEO: Jennifer Sullivan Interview
VIDEO: Emily Gonzalez Interview
VIDEO: Postgame Press Conference
HARROGATE, Tenn. – Defense proved championship-worthy for fifth-seeded Carson-Newman (24-10), as the Lady Eagles delivered a defensive masterclass, shutting down second-seeded No. 18 Lenoir-Rhyne (26-6) to capture the Southeast Regional title Monday night at Tex Turner Arena.
Carson-Newman's defense held the second-highest scoring offense in DII this season to a season-low 53 points and a season-low 26.6 percent shooting. In the two regular season meetings, C-N allowed a combined 196 points in the two meetings and lost both games. But, the third time around was the charm.
"We needed to fix some stuff from the first two meetings and we did," Carson-Newman head coach Mike Mincey said. "We tried to not give them anything easy and certainly didn't press to give them easy stuff. At this point, the way they play, they are kind of hooping that's what we say and you have to know personnel as much as anything. Our girls were just dialed in, they were dialed in this whole tournament and were certainly dialed in tonight. That team (LR) beat us twice and whipped us on our Senior Day and that was tough to stomach the way that game played out. To be able to come in here today and win against them to advance to the Elite Eight, clearly it is pretty special."
The Lady Eagles are Southeast Regional Champions for the second time in program history, with the first coming in 2018. In now 26 total postseason games since moving to Division II, Carson-Newman is now 13-13. C-N improves to 2-2 all-time in four regional championship games.
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— Carson-Newman Athletics (@CN_Eagles) March 17, 2026
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Carson-Newman's regional championship path included wins over the first, second and fourth seeds, all of which were nationally ranked as well. The Lady Eagles entered this NCAA Tournament with just one ranked win in the NCAA Tournament.
In South Atlantic Conference history, Carson-Newman is one of just six schools to reach the Elite Eight. It's the ninth time in league history that a team makes the Elite Eight and the third time its happened in the past four seasons. C-N joins Wingate as the only two schools to make multiple Elite Eight appearances.
The Lady Eagles had three players named to the All-Southeast Regional Tournament Team. Leading the way was Southeast Region Tournament MVP Mattie Nuckolls (Chatsworth, Ga.) who finished off regional play with another dazzling performance. She scored 19 points in the championship game on seven of 13 shooting with three more triples. Nuckolls finished the Southeast Regional Tournament averaging 22 points, six rebounds and two steals per game. Her 22 points per game came on a ridiculous 66.6% shooting percentage from the field and a 65% mark from three-point range.
"To go from where she was as a freshman to now as a junior and be tournament MVP is just unreal to me," Mincey said. "She just balled our the whole tournament and she was playing against a really good team today too. She had to battle on both ends and almost played the entire game. She is special."
"We just wanted this so bad," Nuckolls said. "We all just came in ready to play and if some shots weren't falling we were picking it up on the defensive end. I really think the defensive end fueled our offense. Even if we weren't scoring buckets, we were getting stops."
Nuckolls was joined by Emily Gonzalez (Lenoir City, Tenn.) and Jennifer Sullivan (Knoxville, Tenn.) on the All-Southeast Regional Tournament Team. Gonzalez scored 15 points in the title game, playing all 40 minutes. She scored in double-figures in each tournament game, with her best performance coming in the title game.
Sullivan improved her scoring in each tournament game and drilled six threes all of which came in the final two wins. She finished Monday's night game with a game-high 20 points on 50 percent shooting from the field.
"It's a big props to my teammates," Sullivan said. "Especially Keeleigh (Rogers), she made some great passes and I got cuts back door and she was finding me and that's how I got to the free throw line. They did just as much work as I did trying to get me the basketball. They know what my shots are and they know what plays are for me."
Rogers led Carson-Newman in rebounding, assists and steals with 12 boards, seven dimes and three steals.
C-N scored the first five points but LR responded with eight straight points to take a three-point lead at the first media break. Five straight from Nuckolls gave C-N the lead back less than two minutes later. The Lady Eagles scored five straight points to end the quarter with the lead and would never relinquish it.
Carson-Newman's defense was the reason the lead stayed in its hands and eventually extended. C-N held the Bears without a point for more than five minutes and to just one field goal in the final seven minutes of the second quarter. That helped the Lady Eagles gain a 10-point halftime lead.
The Bears looked to have found their rhythm offensively to start the third quarter. They made four of their first six shots and scored 11 points in the first three minutes of the third to make it a five-point game. The rest of the third was all Nuckolls, Sullivan and C-N's defense. The Lady Eagles defense forced the Bears to miss their next eight shots of the period, and the Nuckolls/Sullivan duo poured in C-N's 12 points to elevate the lead to 14 after three quarters. LR went scoreless for 6:06 after scoring 11 points in the first 3:43 of the third.
The Bears made one final surge to trim at C-N's double-digit lead to start the fourth. After a Keeleigh Rogers (Knoxville, Tenn.) layup, LR scored the next five points to make it an 11-point game with 7:43 left. Five straight points and another Sullivan triple pushed the advantage back to 17, just one minute later.
Carson-Newman never let the Bears get any closer than 14 points the rest of the way and Delaney Weddington (Morristown, Tenn.) scored six of her 10 points in the final two minutes to help seal the 19-point victory.
THESE EAGLES ARE ELITE
— Carson-Newman Athletics (@CN_Eagles) March 17, 2026
For the second time in school history, Carson-Newman lays claim to the Southeast Region title
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FINAL
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The Lady Eagles completed the final phase of a defensive possession by outrebounding LR 46-37 and allowed just nine second chance points off 13 offensive rebounds.
C-N's interior play was terrific on both ends of the floor. C-N outscored LR 38-18 in the paint by making 18 of their 31 layups, while limiting LR to an abysmal five of 21 shooting on shots that were statistically recorded as layups.
The NCAA will reseed eight regional champions and announce the pairings and matchups for the Elite Eight in the coming days. The National Quarterfinals start on March 24 at the UPMC Cooper Fieldhouse in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
Team Stats
#18 Lenoir-Rhyne
| Game Statistics | Carson-Newman | #18 Lenoir-Rhyne |
|---|---|---|
| Field Goals | (27-59) | (16-61) |
| Field Goal % | 45.8% | 26.2% |
| Rebounds | 46 | 37 |
| Assists | 16 | 8 |
| Turnovers | 14 | 15 |
| Pts off Turnovers | 10 | 8 |
| 2nd Chance Pts | 13 | 9 |
| Pts in the Paint | 38 | 18 |
| Fastbreak Pts | 6 | 17 |
| Bench Pts | 6 | 14 |
