Lady Eagles drop overtime thriller to Lenoir-Rhyne, 76-73
Feb. 11, 2009
JEFFERSON CITY, Tenn. -- The Carson-Newman women's basketball team lost a heartbreaker Wednesday night, falling to Lenoir-Rhyne 76-73 in overtime in South Atlantic Conference Action at Holt Fieldhouse.
The Lady Eagles held a 68-65 lead with 48 seconds left in regulation, but L-R's Amber Holt drilled a 3-pointer to tie the game and send it into overtime. The Bears then outscored C-N 8-5 in the extra session to pick up the win.
C-N falls to 16-6 overall and 7-4 in the SAC, while the Bears improve to 20-3 and 10-2 in conference play.
One of the deciding factors in the game was L-R's advantage on the boards. The Bears outrebounded the Lady Eagles 49-35, including 24 offensive rebounds.
"We did what we were supposed to on the defensive end from the very first shot," said C-N coach Dean Walsh, whose team also lost at L-R 87-65 on Jan. 24. "It's just that we did a very, very poor job of rebounding and giving them too many second chance shots, which led to a lot of second chance points. That and we had too many careless turnovers."
Junior guard Ashley Kyle (Jefferson City, Tenn.) paced the Lady Eagles with 20 points, while Shari Buford (Hampton, Ga.) tossed in 12 points and nine rebounds. Angela Volentine (North Platte, Neb.) added 10 points and nine boards in the loss.
Brittany Mitch fired in 20 points to carry L-R. Amber Holt finished with 18 points, and Denise Moore tallied 12 points for the Bears.
The Lady Eagles shot 43.5 percent (27-of-62) from the field but were just 3-of-14 from behind the arc. L-R made 40 percent (26-of-65) of its shot attempts and was 6-for-22 from 3-point range.
The Lady Eagles jumped out to a 7-2 lead to begin the game, but the Bears responded with a 7-0 run to take a 9-7 lead on a Holt layup at the 15:01 mark. L-R led for the next 15 minutes before the Lady Eagles made a late push to tie the game.
With the Bears leading 29-25, Kyle made a layup with just eight seconds remaining to cut L-R's lead to two.
Mandy Mendenhall (Kingston Springs, Tenn.) then stole the ensuing inbound pass, missed a layup but was able to collect her own rebound and put it back in before the buzzer to tie the game at 29-29 heading into the locker room.
C-N opened the second half on a 15-9 run, taking a 44-38 lead on a Mendenhall jumper with 14:02 on the clock.
However, L-R battled back and eventually regained the lead on a layup by Holt with 2:56 remaining.
Volentine converted an old fashion 3-point play with 48 seconds left to put C-N ahead 68-65 before Holt's three tied the game at 68-68 and sent it into overtime.
The Lady Eagles return to action on Saturday as they hit the road to take on rival Tusculum in a SAC matchup. Tipoff is set for 2 p.m.
