C-N wraps up five-game home stand with Anderson
December 3, 2021

C-N wraps up five-game home stand with Anderson

JEFFERSON CITY, Tenn. – Carson-Newman (4-3, 2-2 South Atlantic Conference) closes out a stretch of five-straight home games with a Saturday showdown against Anderson (3-4, 1-4 SAC) at 4 p.m. in Holt Fieldhouse. 

C-N Game Notes

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JEFFERSON CITY, Tenn. – Carson-Newman (4-3, 2-2 South Atlantic Conference) closes out a stretch of five-straight home games with a Saturday showdown against Anderson (3-4, 1-4 SAC) at 4 p.m. in Holt Fieldhouse. 

The Eagles have won three straight while the Trojans have dropped three consecutive.  Anderson is 0-3 on the road but owns a home win over then No. 2 Flagler. 

"We know that they have a veteran team and will be hungry to secure their first road win of the year," head coach Chuck Benson said. "We know what they will come with. We have to counter by being hungry ourselves to balance that out. I think we are trending the right way on both sides of the ball, we just need to continue to show some consistency."

Carson-Newman has dominated at home against Anderson. The Eagles have won eight of their last nine games against the Trojans in Holt Fieldhouse. Five of those games have been decided by 14 or more points. The average margin of victory for C-N's last eight home wins over the Trojans has been 20.625 points. The three games not decided by double-digits were all eight-point C-N wins.

The Trojans have dropped three straight games. The Trojans are looking to avoid their first four-game losing streak since Feb. 15-20, 2021 when AU dropped four consecutive to Queens, Wingate twice on back-to-back days, and Catawba.

Anderson is 0-3 on the road this season, averaging nine points per game fewer away from the Abney Center (84.8-75.3).

Carson-Newman's offensive strategy of late has been predicated on balance.  In Wednesday's 72-57 win over Lenoir-Rhyne, 10 different Eagles scored.  Through seven games, Carson-Newman has had four different leading scorers. 

"I like it because creates a situation where your opponent can't lock in on one or two people," Benson said. "The players like it because no one on the roster gets that extra attention. There's a lot of trust, respect and appreciation throughout our program with guys who will embrace any role either on the floor or off it."

Tripp Davis sits 22 points away from the 1,000th in his playing career. He scored 254 points in his career at Tennessee State. Davis has added in 724 points for Carson-Newman. He needs 276 more points to become the Carson-Newman men's basketball program's 39th all-time 1,000-point scorer.

Bryant Thomas comes into the contest with 82 career blocks, 18 away from becoming Carson-Newman's second triple-digit block performer for a career. He currently sits sixth all-time. One more and he'll tie Colin Martin for fifth all-time.

Thomas is once again among the best in the nation at rejecting shots. He is fourth nationally with 16 blocks and 16th in the country with 2.33 re-directs per game.

The Trojans have the SAC's best one-two scoring punch. Crosby James and Quin Nottingham are two and four in the SAC in scoring average, tallying 20.8 and 19.3 points per game, respectively. At 40.1 points per game, they are the highest scoring duo in the South Atlantic Conference. They are the fifth-best one-two scoring punch in the country behind duos from Emporia, Indiana (Pa.), California (Pa.) and Lindenwood.

"They have an enormous amount of proven experience," Benson said. "They've proven they can produce in big-time ways over and over and over again.  They've done it against us.  We know they are capable of.  Hopefully we'll have some defensive strategies that will limit that."

Not many teams do a better job than Anderson of getting to the free throw line and then converting. The Trojans are fourth in the country and the league leaders with 127 made free throws. AU has gotten to the line 173 times - seventh most nationally and tops in the SAC. The Trojans have attempted 30 or more free throws in three games this year (LMU, UVA Wise and Newberry.

Quin Nottingham is the SAC's leader with 40 made free throws on 46 attempts. He is third in the league in free throw percentage at 87 percent.

Tipoff between the Eagles and Trojans is set for 4 p.m. Saturday. Coverage on the Eagle Sports Network starts at 3:45 with the AEC Countdown to Tipoff on Mountain Sports 106.3 (WPFT-FM, Sevierville) and online at cneagles.com/live. 

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