Sweet-shooting C-N sinks TU 100-73
December 10, 2025

Sweet-shooting C-N sinks TU 100-73

GREENEVILLE, Tenn. – How comprehensive was Carson-Newman’s (6-1, 2-0 South Atlantic Conference) 100-73 win over Tusculum (4-5, 1-3 SAC) Wednesday night in Pioneer Arena?

VIDEO: Chuck Benson Interview

VIDEO: Highlights

VIDEO: Matt Bilbrey Interview

VIDEO: Rylan Houck Interview

GREENEVILLE, Tenn. – How comprehensive was Carson-Newman's (6-1, 2-0 South Atlantic Conference) 100-73 win over Tusculum (4-5, 1-3 SAC) Wednesday night in Pioneer Arena?

C-N head coach Chuck Benson's only problem with the night was some soggy fries in the pregame meal. 

"The only thing bad tonight was my pregame fries for soggy," Benson said. "I was upset about that. So I ignored them and went straight tendies and a piece of bread. For the fries to be a low point today, that means things were pretty good."   

Carson-Newman blew the barn doors off things after halftime, outscoring the Pioneers 53-32 in the second half en route to its first win by more than 20 in the series since the 2015-16 season. 

The Eagles had jumped out by 13 late in the first half, leading 47-34 with a minute left after a pair of Keliese Frye (Newport, Ky.) cuts to the basket. 

However, Tusculum closed by scoring the final seven of the first half and first two of the second to rattle off a 9-0 run aided by seven points from Bryce Jackson.  The Pioneers were within four, 47-43, 52 seconds into the second half following Jackson's two free throws. 

"I so much prefer to go down to the locker room at the half feeling semi-despondent and sad," Benson said. "I hate the feeling after a good first half. Internally, I was glad they made that 7-0 run to let the air out of my good day balloon. Our response the second half was really nice." 

That four-point margin would be as close as Tusculum would get. TU wouldn't score for another four minutes. In the interim, C-N rattled off 13 straight to go up by 17, 60-43.  Matt Bilbrey (Crossville, Tenn.) ignited the surged by connecting on a pair of threes, sandwiched around a driving layup.  Tusculum would trail by double digits for the rest of the game. 

The Pioneers would get within 11 with a 6-0 run following the Eagles' burst. However, a C-N timeout and a 9-2 Eagle run settled things down.  Carson-Newman cemented its largest margin of victory in the series in a decade by outscoring the Pioneers 23-8 over the final seven minutes of the game. 

"We defended, especially in the second half," Benson said. "Credit goes to our guys for the preparation. We knew we were going to get a really stiff, stingy look defensively. Our guys were intent on meeting our objectives that we had laid out. I thought we did it at a really consistent, high level today." 

The Eagles shot 64.5 percent from the field, connecting on 20-of-31 shots in both the first and second halves.  C-N outscored Tusculum 58-32 in the paint.  The Eagles scored 52 points on dunks and layups.  The .645 shooting percentage is the 12th-best shooting night in school history. 

Carson-Newman dished out 22 assists on its 40 made baskets – the third time in seven games this year C-N has dropped 20 or more dimes. 

"I thought we were able to get the ball inside with a pass and then get an interior pass after the pass to keep them moving and guessing," Benson said. "We chuck in some offensive rebounds and trips to the free throw line, this was a pretty versatile display for our guys today."

C-N only missed 22 shots on the day, but grabbed offensive rebounds on 10 of them.  The Eagles limited the Pioneers to 40 percent shooting, but just 33 percent after halftime. Tusculum missed 42 shots.  In spite of that disparity, Carson-Newman outscored Tusculum 17-16 in second chance points. 

Braden Ilic (Morristown, Tenn.) led Carson-Newman with eight assists. Bilbrey followed suit with six. 

"Braden is nasty," Benson said. "He had some nasty passes out there today. When you have a player like that, if you're his teammate and keep moving, he's going to find you in a small window and deliver the goods." 

Jack Browder (Kingsport, Tenn.) paced Carson-Newman with a quiet 27. He was 12-of-20 from the field, but just 1-of-6 from long range.  He narrowly missed out on his 29th career double-double with nine boards. 

With the scoring effort, he moved past All-American Antoine Davis and into 12th on the school's all-time scoring list. Browder has 1,527 points in his career. 

Bilbrey was flawless in recording his third career 20-point performance. He finished with 21 and didn't miss on eight shots from the field and four from three. He becomes the third player in the last 15 years to take and make at least four threes in a game without missing (Charles Clark and Jack Browder are the other two). 

"Tusculum has really good ball pressure," Benson said. "I thought Matt handled that well.  When you have that kind of ball pressure, he went against their athleticism and length and found shot opportunities and capitalized." 

Rylan Houck (Oxford, Ala.) logged his first career double-double with 17 points and 10 rebounds.  He was 7-of-12 from the field.  Houck did that giving up seven inches to Tusculum's two seven footers who rotated among one another for the full 40 minutes.   

"Our guys played above coaching tonight in a big-time way," Benson said. "To identify advantages and matchups and then capitalize on them.  Rylan did that time and time again."

Frye rounded out C-N's double-digit scorers with 12 points. He had 10 in the first half on 5-of-7 shooting.  He also added in six boards. 

Jackson led Tusculum with 24 points on 7-of-13 shooting, including a 3-of-6 mark from deep. It marked his second straight 24-point night. 

Damjan Vuckovic reset his career high with 12 points on 6-of-7 shooting for TU's only other double-digit scorer. 

Carson-Newman outrebounded TU 40-27 – C-N's second double-digit rebounding margin this year. 

Both teams took care of the ball. There were only 15 turnovers in the game with eight giveaways for C-N.  Tusculum became the first team to outscore C-N in points off turnovers this season. The Pioneers had a 14-10 edge in that category. 

Carson-Newman returns home Saturday to face No. 18 Anderson.  Tipoff with the Trojans is set for 4 p.m. Coverage on the Eagle Sports Network starts at 3:45 with the AEC Countdown to Tipoff on Mix 105.5 (WSEV-FM, Sevierville) and online at cneagles.com/live. A video stream is available with a subscription to FloSports at cneagles.com/FloMbb.  A view of press row coupled with the radio feed is on YouTube.

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