March 4, 2015

Burstrom, Hodge and Simerly garner postseason All-SAC honors

ROCK HILL, S.C. – Junior guard Tatum Burstrom (Maryville, Tenn.) was named honorable mention All-South Atlantic Conference while freshman forwards Allison Hodge (Blaine, Tenn.) and Jecca Simerly (Talbott, Tenn.) were on the All-Freshman team the conference announced Wednesday.

ROCK HILL, S.C. – Junior guard Tatum Burstrom (Maryville, Tenn.) was named honorable mention All-South Atlantic Conference while freshman forwards Allison Hodge (Blaine, Tenn.) and Jecca Simerly (Talbott, Tenn.) were on the All-Freshman team the conference announced Wednesday.

It marks the first time in the Mike Mincey era and since 2010-11 that three players have earned postseason accolades from the league. Carson-Newman put two players on the All-Freshman team for the first time since Shari Buford and Casha Foster were on the squad in 2006-07.

"I feel like we've come a long way," Burstrom said. "Mincey has gone out and gotten some great recruits. Hodge and Jecca have been huge for us. I'm just proud of them and how they've come into college and taken the next step."

Burstrom earns her second career postseason honor after being named All-Freshman in 2012-13. The junior guard has tallied 14 double figure games this season while ranking second on the roster with 10.1 points per game this year. The Maryville, Tenn. has led the team in assists on eight occasions with notching three or more assists 11 times. Her 67 assists this season rank 12^th in the league while her 1.3 assist-to-turnover ratio is sixth in the SAC. Burstrom has made 55 three-pointers this season, sixth in the conference, while bringing her career total to 187 which ranks second in Carson-Newman history.

"It's a little bit of me, but a lot of other people opening themselves up," Burstrom said. "We had a lot of other people step up and become different scorers or just different aspects of the team so it was a lot easier on me to get past one person and see other people being open. You can't get an assist without other people contributing."

Simerly led the Lady Eagles with 10.3 points per game and 5.5 rebounds per game this year. The forward led the conference by making 60.4 percent of her shots. The Talbott, Tenn. native ranked ninth in the conference with 22 blocks in her freshman year. Simerly had 12 double figure scoring efforts that included three 20-point nights. The freshman also had seven games with three or more assists. Simerly had a team-high three double-doubles this season with all three contests coming in league play.

"It says that Mincey did a really good job recruiting," Simerly said of the freshman class. "We knew coming in that we had a big role to play and I think we both did really well living up to expectations."

Hodge ranked seventh in the SAC by making 37.3 percent of her three-point attempts while scoring 10 or more points eight times during her freshman campaign. The forward scored 6.5 points per game, 2.9 rebounds per game and 1.5 assists. Hodge had six games with three or more assists.

"It's definitely exciting," Hodge said. "I was not expecting it coming into my freshman year, but we all just worked really hard and it's a very big accomplishment."

The Lady Eagles are in action at Catawba tonight in the SAC Quarterfinals at 7 p.m. Listen to "The Appalachian Electric Cooperative Countdown to Tip-Off" on cneagles.com/live beginning at 6:45 on the Eagle Sports Network.

First Team

Sierra Simpson, Anderson

Samantha Creed, Newberry

Camille Glymph, Mars Hill

Chantal Dunbar, Wingate

Haylee Lepaio, Newberry

Jazmine Charles, Lenoir-Rhyne

Second Team

Jada Huntley, Catawba

Bri Johnson, Catawba

Katie Williams, Brevard

Tanesha Stenson, Coker