Carson-Newman Basketball Position Previews: The Backcourt
JEFFERSON CITY, Tenn. – This is the final part in a two-part series breaking down Carson-Newman men’s basketball program’s positions. This feature analyzes the guards with aid from All-SAC ball-handler Luke Brenegan.
VIDEO: Luke Brenegan Interview
JEFFERSON CITY, Tenn. – This is the final part in a two-part series breaking down Carson-Newman men's basketball program's positions. This feature analyzes the guards with aid from All-SAC ball-handler Luke Brenegan.
Carson-Newman loses 1,000-point scorer and one of the program's top steals producers in Tripp Davis. However, The Eagles do return seven players who saw 2,915 collective minutes worth of time in the backcourt last season.
Brenegan leads that group after a season where he battled through back injuries.
"Tons and tons of rehab," Brenegan said. "There's been a lot of stretching, ice and recovering. I'll take a day off here or there to make sure I'm healthy and just trust in the process."
Even with the injuries, Brenegan has been one of the steadiest guards in the SAC, playing in 29 games for C-N with 28 starts last season. He averaged 11.4 points per game with 3.6 assists and 2.9 rebounds. Brenegan was named SAC Player of the Week on Jan. 17 for his role in a pair of C-N road wins. He enters his senior season 174 points shy of 1,000 for his career.
He had a a career-best nine-game stretch where Brenegan scored in double-digits in every game from Dec. 18 - Feb. 2. He also had a 20-point game in the SAC quarterfinals at Wingate (3/2). Brenegan dolled out five assists on 10 occasions, topping out with a career-high nine against Mars Hill (12/15). A noted three-point marksman, Brenegan buried a team-best 58 threes and shot 35.2 percent from range. He had multiple threes made in 21 of his 29 games played and three or more threes made in six games.
Joining him are his younger brother Nick and John Zhao.
"Losing Tripp is a lot," Brenegan said. "But that also frees up minutes and allows for guys to come in and grow. The best way to show consistency is to get those minutes. You can tell that consistency then breeds confidence."
The younger Brenegan brother appeared in all 31 games for Carson-Newman making his first starts of his career. Brenegan entered the starting lineup against Erskine (1/1). The three-point specialist averaged 5.2 points per game while canning 39.8 percent of his shots and 40.4 percent of his threes. Brenegan made 42 triples on 104 attempts. He made a three in a career-best eight straight games from Dec. 1 - Jan. 5. The Wade Hampton product had six games where he buried three or more threes. Brenegan reset his career high in a start at Anderson (1/24). He canned 6-of-9 threes en route to scoring 20 on the Trojans. That was one of four double-digit scoring efforts on the year for Brenegan.
Zhao established himself as a three-point marksman early. Zhao connectd on 27-of-65 triples on the year (41.5 percent). He made a splash in his third career game, exploding for 18 against No. 11 Queens (11/20) in a tight loss. he canned 6-of-8 triples against the Royals. Zhao also produced a double-digit scoring effort against Anderson (12/4) when he scored 10 against the Trojans.
Caleb Bridgewater and Jarius Satterfield also add in value to the Eagle ball-handles.
Bridgewater made his first career starts in his sophomore campaign. Bridgewater first appeared in the starting lineup against Wingate (11/27) before making nine starts on the year. He appeared in 19 games en route to averaging 3.1 points and 2.0 boards per game. Bridgewater made a noticeable inpact with his hustle, scooping up multiple offensive rebounds in all but one of his starts.
He had five offensive boards against Anderson (12/4). Bridgewater set career highs for points - 11 - and rebounds - six - against Lenoir-Rhyne (12/1). He reset his career high for points when he led C-N with 13 points at Lincoln Memorial (1/26). He drilled a career-best three triples against the Railsplitters.
"Caleb and Jarius are vets," Brenegan said. "They've been through it and know what it takes to win."
C-N does add three to the backcourt in transfer Monty Johal and freshman Jack Browder and Jayme Peay.
"Jayme is a long, lanky athletic player," Brenegan said. "Jack can shoot it and is underrated as a rebounder. Monty is a twitchy guard. He's savvy and can score or pass it. All three of them are fun to play with."
In the CoVID-shortened 2020-21 campaign, Johal played in 23 games with 10 starts for the Tigers. He averaged 5.0 points, 2.1 rebounds, 1.2 assists and 0.7 steals per game and scored a season-high 16 points against Tennessee Tech (2/18).
Peay earned all-tournament team honors twice while helping Providence Academy to an NCSAA Division 3 championship as a senior. In two years with the program, he averaged 14.1 points and 6.2 rebounds per game, scoring 676 points as a junior and senior.
Browder helped Dobyns-Bennett to a 4A state championship in 2022 as well as section, region and conference championships that year. The Indians were repeat champions at the section, region and conference level. Along the way, Browder earned 4A State MVP honors as well as being named to the all-state tournament team.
His senior year he was named Big 5 Player of the Year, first team all-region, first team all-conference and first team all-northeast Tennessee. He also earned all-conference honors as a junior in addition to being named the region player of the year. He scored 1,196 points in his high school basketball career while averaging 15 points, 9.1 rebounds on 42 percent shooting.
Carson-Newman opens the season Friday at the SAC/Conference Carolinas Challenge in Bristol. C-N takes on Lees-McRae at 5 p.m.
