Eagles open doors to Holt Fieldhouse with Newberry
December 1, 2020

Eagles open doors to Holt Fieldhouse with Newberry

JEFFERSON CITY, Tenn. – Carson-Newman (1-1, 1-1 South Atlantic Conference) returns to the floor following an eight-day layoff to play its first home game when Newberry (0-1, 0-1 SAC) arrives in Holt Fieldhouse Wednesday night for a 7:30 tip. 

C-N Game Note 

JEFFERSON CITY, Tenn. – Carson-Newman (1-1, 1-1 South Atlantic Conference) returns to the floor following an eight-day layoff to play its first home game when Newberry (0-1, 0-1 SAC) arrives in Holt Fieldhouse Wednesday night for a 7:30 tip. 

No tickets will be sold at the gate and attendance will be limited to the 115 who pre-purchased/reserved their tickets. 

Carson-Newman has won five straight home openers. The Eagles' last loss to open the doors to Holt Fieldhouse came against Coker on Nov. 22, 2014, 69-60. The Eagles are 8-2 all-time in home openers with Chuck Benson as head coach. C-N lost to Belmont Abbey in Benson's first year 86-81 as C-N's only other home-opening loss. Carson-Newman sprinted past Shorter last season 113-98 in a track meet to open Holt Fieldhouse.

Newberry has a familiar foe on the sidelines after former head coach Dave Davis left to take an assistant's job at Winthrop. Former Anderson head coach Jason Taylor returned last year after a four-year absence from the conference after he spent nearly half a decade as an assistant at Tennessee Tech. Taylor coached Anderson to two Sweet 16s and an Elite Eight. Chuck Benson has a 6-8 record against Taylor as a head coach.  The Wolves lost their season opener by 22 at Lincoln Memorial back on Nov. 21. 

"We've had experiences with teams with Jason's teams both at Anderson and last year at Newberry," Carson-Newman head men's basketball coach Chuck Benson said. "A lot of coaches stay with a given style, but he's like everyone else in this pandemic and could be thinking of doing things you wouldn't traditionally wouldn't do.  Their game with LMU doesn't really give us anything because us and LMU play so differently stylistically.  That just means we have to focus more on ourselves."

Benson is 16-6 in his decade on the bench against the Wolves. 

Carson-Newman is looking to win back-to-back games for the first time in more than a year. The Eagles last won two straight from Nov. 30 to Dec. 4, 2019 with a 92-78 win at home over Wingate followed by a 99-77 beatdown of Warren Wilson, also inside Holt Fieldhouse.

"We tried to study the good things that we discovered at Wingate," Benson said. "We want to stay committed to the basics and not get too cute on offense and defense while our guys gain confidence in that."

Newberry swept last season's meetings with the Eagles for the first time since 2011-12. Now the Wolves look for their first three-game win streak in the series since that season. A win by the Wolves would match their longest win streak in series history. Carson-Newman had won 17 of the last 20 meetings since being swept nine years ago.

QuanDaveon McCollum was the biggest producer for Newberry last season. McCollum had 15 points and 10 boards in the Wolves 87-76 win in Holt Fieldhouse. In Eleazer Arena in the Wolves' 80-63 triumph, McCollum produced a 19-point, 15-rebound double-double. He went 13-for-24 from the floor last season.

"We have to impact his touches when we can," Benson said. "We'll have to challenge his shots and his rim attach while  throwing different defensive strategies at him.  Most importantly, we have to limit his seconds. We have to be committed to not only stopping him when he has the ball, but also making sure he doesn't get those seconds and thirds."

McCollum scored 12 points and had eight boards in the Wolves season-opening loss at LMU.  TJ brown provided the main scoring spark with 22 points and nine boards.  He was 3-for-6 from long distance.

"He was good last year, but he is much improved from last year," Benson said. "A 20 and 10 night for him is within reach every night because he is a big, athletic guard who can score at three levels." 

Carson-Newman's defense is off to a fearsome start for 2020-21. While the season has begun in fits and starts, and the sample size is limited, Carson-Newman is one of three teams in the league with multiple Division II games limiting foes to fewer than 70 points per game (69.0). The Eagles rank second in the league in field goal defense

Tipoff between the Eagles and Wolves is set for 7:30 p.m. Coverage on the Eagle Sports Network begins 15 minutes prior to tip with the AEC Countdown

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