Critical road challenge dispatches C-N to Wingate
February 17, 2017

Critical road challenge dispatches C-N to Wingate

JEFFERSON CITY, Tenn. – With both teams ranked in the opening NCAA Regional Rankings, Carson-Newman travels to Wingate Saturday afternoon for a 2 p.m. South Atlantic Conference game at Cuddy Arena.

C-N Women's Basketball Game Notes

JEFFERSON CITY, Tenn. – With both teams ranked in the opening NCAA Regional Rankings, Carson-Newman travels to Wingate Saturday afternoon for a 2 p.m. South Atlantic Conference game at Cuddy Arena.

The Bulldogs are fifth in the region while the Lady Eagles are on the outside looking in at the No. 9 position entering this weekend looking for a win that could cement a spot in the top eight.

"I've been impressed with our team even though we have the one win against the top-10 teams in our region," Carson-Newman coach Mike Mincey said. "We have been competitive in all of them and have had a chance to win all of those games. A win would be huge in terms of our NCAA Tournament resume. Regardless our strength of schedule is going to go up because we are playing a top-five team on the road. A win might give us the edge to get us in the top eight for next week."

The Lady Eagles won their 14th game in South Atlantic Conference play at Tusculum on Feb. 15 passing the program's prior high in the league of 14 set in the first year in the league in 1989-90 when the squad won the regular season title going 13-1.

Wingate (20-4, 16-3) leads the all-time series 42-31 through the first 73 meetings while winning each of the last seven outings over the last three years.

Carson-Newman (17-8, 14-5) last victory over Wingate came in the 2012-13 regular season finale on March 2, 2013, a 56-50 decision at Holt Fieldhouse. Tatum Burstrom scored 12 points as C-N outscored Wingate 39-24 in the second half. It concluded a season sweep of Wingate as C-N won at Cuddy Arena 49-46 on Feb. 2 of that season.

The first meeting this year saw Wingate make 55 percent of its field-goal attempts in the second half to overcome a 15-point deficit to win 80-75 in the first overtime affair in the history of the series.

Carson-Newman did not make a shot from the field in the overtime period settling for four free throws and Wingate pushed the lead to as many as five points and scored the final four of the day as C-N failed to score in the final two minutes.

Kailyn Brooks (Lafayette, Tenn.) finished with 20 points and eight assists on the day tying a career-high with six made three-pointers on the afternoon. Katie Stubblefield (Alcoa, Tenn.) finished with a career-high 18 points making seven of eight shots from the field. Danasia Witherspoon ended the day with a double-double at 20 points and 11 points to go along with four steals as one of five players in double figures.

Brooks tied the program's single-season record made three-pointers in a season on Wednesday bringing her total to 72 on the year tying Ashley Tipton's mark set in 2008-09. Her next connection from long range will put her alone on top of the list.

Wingate is riding a nine-game winning streak dating back to a home 62-61 home loss to Anderson on Jan. 14. The streak is tied for the 14th-longest among the Division II schools and third in the Southeast Region behind Limestone's 16 and Columbus State's 14.

Rebounding continues to be the strong feature of Ann Hancock's team ranking third in the country with a plus-12 rebounding margin pulling down 17 offensive boards per night, 13th in Division II while racking up a total of 43 caroms on average.

The group is extremely efficient from the long range placing ninth in the nation at 38 percent but only two teams have attempted fewer than Wingate's 175.

Overall the Bulldogs are top five in the league in nearly every category expect four including ranking 10th in free-throw percentage at 64 percent.

Marta Miscenko continues to pace the group with 14.5 points per game while leading the league and ranking 15th in the nation with 12 double-doubles. Her 64 blocks rank 11th in the nation. Witherspoon is registering 14.1 points per night making 53 percent of her shots, second in the league.

The opening tip-off is scheduled for 2 p.m. and the Eagle Sports Network will be on the air at 1:45 p.m. with "The Appalachian Electric Cooperative Countdown to Tip-Off" on Mountain Country 106.3 WPFT-FM and cneagles.com/live.

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