Lady Eagles fall at buzzer to LMU, 81-79
Feb. 22, 2009
HARROGATE, TN - When LMU and Carson-Newman play each other, you can throw the records out the window because they aren't going to matter much. Such was the case Saturday evening when the Lady Railsplitters knocked the third ranked team in the conference, Carson-Newman College 81-79 to pick up their fifth South Atlantic Conference win of the year.
As has been the case in many games this season regardless of the opponent, the first half between the Lady Railsplitters and the Lady Eagles was close. After trading leads several times, the LMU women took a narrow 45-38 lead into the locker room at the half. As the second half got underway however, Carson-Newman used the inside play of Lindsey Eggleston and Shari Buford to pull out to a 9-point lead with only 7:25 remaining. The situation was all too familiar to Lady Railsplitter fans.
Facing a 9-point deficit and time working against them, the Lady Railsplitters responded a little differently down the stretch then they have with other similar situations this year. Maybe it was the tradition of rivalry between the two schools. Maybe it was just the way the breaks happened in the game, or even that the Lady Railsplitters just said, "no not this time, we're not losing tonight."
Whatever the reason, LMU started whittling away at the deficit and tied the game at 77 on a 3-pointer by sophomore Amberly O'Dell with less than a minute to play. Freshman point-guard Dayshalee Salaman ignited the LMU crowd with a layup at the 22 second mark that gave the Lady Splitters the lead but Carson-Newman wasn't done yet. Shari Buford returned the favor by giving the Lady Eagles hope with 16 seconds to go when she made a layup of her own to tie the game again at 79.
With timeout on the floor, the whole situation may h a ve worked in the Lady Railsplitter's favor. Sure the game was tied 79-79, but LMU had the ball, and providing they could get it up the floor, they would have the last shot of the game. That very scenario is what materialized and with four seconds on the clock, LMU junior forward Cena Nasiloski split a seam in Lady Eagles defense and hit what turned out to be the game-winning-shot to lift LMU over Carson-Newman 81-79.
Salaman led all scorers in the game with 26 points, while O'Dell came off the bench to hit 5-12 3-point attempts and scored 18 points on the night. Also knocking down double figures were the one-two combination punch on the side of Nasiloski and junior forward Andi Winney. Each chiped in 11 points, while Nasiloski led LMU in rebounding with nine boards.
Carson-Newman's Ashley Tipton was red-hot from the perimeter, hitting 5-9 shots from the arc while leading the Lady Eagles in scoring with 21 points. Teammate Sh a ri Buford added another 17 points and 12 rebounds on the inside, while Ashley Kyle scored 14 and Mandy Mendenhall had 11.
The win moves the Lady Railsplitters to 11-15 overall and 5-10 in the South Atlantic Conference, while Carson-Newman falls to 17-8 overall and 8-6 in league play. Next Saturday night the Lady Railsplitters will host Newberry College in the 2008-09 regular season finale. The night will be especially emotional for seniors Kara Harris and Sarah Harrison who will be playing their final home games in an LMU uniform. Tip-off is set for 6:00 p.m.
