Bounces fall to Brevard as Lady Eagles upset in OT
January 14, 2015

Bounces fall to Brevard as Lady Eagles upset in OT

BREVARD, N.C. – Katie Williams banked in a 25-foot three-point as the buzzer sounded in regulation to force overtime as the Brevard Tornados (3-9, 2-7 South Atlantic Conference) held on to defeat the Carson-Newman Lady Eagles (13-2, 7-2 SAC) 77-76 in overtime Wednesday night at Boshamer Gymnasium.

VIDEO: Mike Mincey Interview

BREVARD, N.C. – Katie Williams banked in a 25-foot three-point as the buzzer sounded in regulation to force overtime as the Brevard Tornados (3-9, 2-7 South Atlantic Conference) held on to defeat the Carson-Newman Lady Eagles (13-2, 7-2 SAC) 77-76 in overtime Wednesday night at Boshamer Gymnasium.

Carson-Newman could not get a shot off on its last possession of regulation. As Brevard dribbled into the front court, the Tornados got a timeout with 1.4 seconds to play. Inbounding even with the top of the key on the left side of the court, the ball came to Williams who bounced the ball once to her left before heaving a shot that glanced off of the glass and dropped through the cords to force overtime.

Williams, the team's leading scorer, fouled out in the opening minutes of the extra frame, but Brevard went 6-for-8 from the charity stripe and buried two of four free tosses.

Trailing 77-76 with 20 seconds to play the Lady Eagles once again couldn't get a shot off as a jump ball gave the Tornados the ball back with under four seconds to play.

"When she hit that shot, I thought we were in trouble," head coach Mike Mincey said. "Obviously we shot the ball terribly. A lot of this falls on my shoulders because I want tempo. I want to press. I want to shoot the ball more. Those are all things we want to build our identity on. It kind of backfired on us and didn't work like we would have wanted."

Carson-Newman's inability to hit outside jump shots was the largest contributing factor to shooting 33 percent in the first half as the Lady Eagles went 0-for-16 in the opening frame from deep compared to 15 of 30 from inside the arc.

The biggest reason why the visiting group was in the basketball game was because the Lady Eagles had 16 offensive rebounds in the first half that translated to 20 second chance points.

The first half saw 13 lead changes and three ties as neither side had a lead of larger than five points.

Freshman forward Jecca Simerly (Talbott, Tenn.) led all players with 10 points in the first half to go along with five rebounds on 4 of 6 shooting.

In the game, Carson-Newman shot just 35 percent from the floor on 29 of 82 shooting including 5-for-33 from three-point range.

For the second time this season, a pair of Lady Eagles notched a double-double as Simerly earned her third of the season with 22 points on 8 of 10 shooting and a career-high 10 rebounds. Junior guard Jai Jai McLaughlin (Knoxville, Tenn.) had 10 points and 12 boards for her second double-double of the season.

Madison Lenox led all players with 24 points to go along with six assists, five rebounds and three steals while Talyor Hiatt had a a double-double with 10 points and 10 rebounds.

Carson-Newman ventures to Coker on Saturday for a 2 p.m. start against the Cobras with coverage beginning on the Eagle Sports Network's flagship station 106.3 WPFT-FM and cneagles.com/live beginning 15 minutes prior to the opening tap.

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