Tusculum tilt up next for Lady Eagles
January 19, 2015

Tusculum tilt up next for Lady Eagles

JEFFERSON CITY, Tenn. – One bad week does not define a college basketball team. Every eventual national team has blemishes on its record. What tells the true story of a team is how they bounce back after adversity.

Carson-Newman Women's Basketball Game Notes

JEFFERSON CITY, Tenn. – One bad week does not define a college basketball team. Every eventual national team has blemishes on its record. What tells the true story of a team is how they bounce back after adversity. 

Wednesday night at Holt Fieldhouse will tell the story of what kind of team the Carson-Newman Lady Eagles (13-3, 7-3 South Atlantic Conference) is when they hold the Tusculum Pioneers (3-10, 3-7 SAC). 

One week ago, head coach Mike Mincey's group was atop the standings and playing a pair of teams that were at the bottom of the table. The worst part of the road trips seemed like it would be the long bus rides, but everything that could go wrong went wrong. 

A buzzer beating three-pointer, an injury to a key player and numerous bounces did not favor the Lady Eagles last week. 

Questions will be answered Wednesday against an in-state rival, but one of the biggest issues over the last month may have been solved Saturday afternoon. Junior guard Tatum Burstrom (Maryville, Tenn.) not only scored but did so efficiently. Burstrom racked up 21 points on 8 of 14 shooting that included a 4-for-7 mark from distance.

In the five games prior to Saturday's game at Coker, the junior had just 27 points and made just 22 percent of her field goal attempts including a 4-for-25 mark from beyond the arc. 

While Saturday was the first time in Burstrom's career that the Lady Eagles lost when the guard scored at least 20 points in a game in nine tries, finding a reliable shooter from the shooting guard spot has been tough to come by over the last month. 

Carson-Newman expects to have plenty of good looks against the Pioneers who ranks 286th out of 289 teams in scoring defense yielding 78.2 points per game and 261st in defensive field goal percentage giving up 42.7 percent on the year. 

Tusculum has lost five of its last six outings while the average margin of defeat standing at 16.2 points. 

Shynese Whitener has been the top player this year by averaging 13.7 points per game including a 30-point effort at Lincoln Memorial last Wednesday where she made 12 of 20 field goal attempts. Whitener has been just as good defensively ranking sixth in the nation with 3.69 steals per game.

Wednesday's meeting is the 67th in the all-time series with Carson-Newman holding a commanding 50-16 lead including an 88-79 win at Tusculum on November 19. Freshman forward Allison Hodge (Blaine, Tenn.) poured in a career-high 24 points on 8 of 12 shooting in the game.
Fans can catch the game on the Eagle Sports Network's flagship station 106.3 WPFT-FM or with a high definition video stream at cneagles.com/live beginning 15 minutes prior to the opening tap with "The Appalachian Electric Cooperative Countdown to Tip-Off".

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