Lady Eagles Cruise Past Brevard, 99-77
Jan. 21, 2009
JEFFERSON CITY, Tenn. - The Carson-Newman women's basketball team overcame a slow start to bury Brevard College 99-77 Wednesday night in South Atlantic Conference action at Hold Fieldhouse.
The Lady Eagles held a slim 27-24 lead with 5:49 left in the first half before turning up the intensity on both ends of the floor. C-N forced 24 turnovers the rest of the way and exploded for 72 points on the way to its fifth straight win.
C-N improves to 14-3 overall and 5-1 in the SAC. Brevard falls to 4-12 on the year and 0-7 in conference play.
"We were a little sluggish," C-N coach Dean Walsh said. "It could almost be expected with the emotional Wingate game on the road and the Tusculum game here. That's just conference play for you. You have to be mentally ready in this conference night in and night out."
"In the second half, I thought we definitely picked up the intensity a lot more. Our goal for the second half was to start it off and hit them really hard, and I think we did that.
Four Lady Eagles finished in double figures in scoring led by a 16-point effort from Mandy Mendenhall (Kingston Springs, Tenn.). Junior guard Ashley Kyle (Jefferson City, Tenn.) tallied 15 points and dished out eight assists, while Shari Buford (Hampton, Ga.) had 13 points and six rebounds. Ashley Tipton (Knoxville, Tenn.) chipped in 12 points in the win.
"We play well as a team and that showed tonight," Walsh said of C-N's balanced scoring. "When we play as a team, good things happen. As long as we continue to play as a team, I think good things will happen.
Samantha Winn paced the Lady Tornados with 16 points, while Kelly Hudler added 13 and Holli Flippo pitched in 11. Amanda Whitaker and Anna Schlobohm each had 10 points for Brevard.
C-N outshot Brevard with a 56.3 percent (40-of-71) performance from the floor, while the Lady Tornados shot 44.1 percent (26-of-59) on the night, including a 10-for-22 effort from 3-point range. Brevard won the rebounding battle 34-33.
Despite committing 12 first half turnovers, the Lady Eagles took a 42-30 lead heading into the locker room.
A Tipton layup at the 6:53 mark gave C-N a 25-17 advantage, but the Tornados scrapped back with a 7-2 run capped by a Flippo 3-pointer that cut the Lady Eagles' lead to 27-24.
However, Tipton then sank a jumper to spark a 15-6 C-N run to close out the half.
The Lady Eagles opened the second half on fire, pushing their lead to 54-34 with a 12-4 run capped by a Lindsey Eggleston jumper with 15:51 remaining.
Brevard was unable to cut C-N's lead to below 15 points the rest of the way.
The Lady Eagles will return to the hardwood on Saturday, Jan. 24 at Lenoir-Rhyne in a SAC matchup. Tipoff is set for 6 p.m.
