MARS HILL, N.C. – Carson-Newman dominated the first half of Wednesday's South Atlantic Conference action at Mars Hill jumping out to a lead of as high as 40 points in a 96-73 victory over the Lions at Stanford Arena.
The Lady Eagles have won each of the last eight meetings with the Lions and 15 of the last 16 scoring at least 86 during the winning streak. C-N wins its sixth consecutive road game.
"We started off with a lack of energy and I think Tori came in with her scoring and a lot of things that she was doing," Carson-Newman coach Mike Mincey said. "Bunch played really hard. It was that second group that carried us. Once we started playing hard on both ends of the floor I thought some good things happened. I didn't really have a whole lot of complaints in the first 20 minutes."
Five players finished in double figures led by 16 points and 11 rebounds from Kayla Marosites (Elizabethton, Tenn.). Madison Bunch (Morristown, Tenn.) added 14 points and a career-high seven boards.
Braelyn Wykle (Greeneville, Tenn.) posted 12 points and six rebounds. Tori Griffin (Strawberry Plains, Tenn.) and Abby Wilson (Kingston, Tenn.) registered 13 points and 10 points apiece.
"I wanted to play relaxed and have fun," Griffin said. "The group that I came in with played really well together. We passed the ball and got open shots. I think a lot of my shooting comes from confidence. As long as I have confidence that it's going in that helps out a lot."
Carson-Newman (15-6, 11-4) saw all 12 of its players score at least two points in the game with the bench combining for 46. The Lady Eagles finished plus-17 on the glass, 51-34.
Mars Hill was issued a technical foul prior to the game allowing Kayla Marosites to drill a pair of foul shots prior to the clock starting. C-N's offense took some time to kick into gear but the team scored the final five points of the first period to go on top 27-13.
Mincey's club controlled the second stanza to the tune of a 26-6 differential. All told, the Lady Eagles scored 31 of the final 37 points of the first half using 10-0 and 11-0 runs to take a 53-19 lead into the locker room.
8⃣ straight @CNwbasketball wins over Mars Hill
— Carson-Newman Athletics (@CNathletics) February 6, 2020
�� Plus-17 on the glass
⭐️ @madisonbunch33 stuffs the stat sheet pic.twitter.com/gzgblMxx9S
The Lions outscored Carson-Newman by five in the third period 28-21, the highest point total yielded by C-N in the third this year, thanks to 16 points from De'Ja Marshall. After a 10-0 run from the Lady Eagles that ballooned the bulge to 71-31 with 3:14 to go in the third, Mars Hill finished the frame on an 18-3 burst to close the gap to 27 points at 74-47 entering fourth.
The Lions refused to go quietly inching as close as 18 points on three occasions before the Lady Eagles finished the night by scoring nine of the final 13 points. Mars Hill outscored the visitors by 11 in the second half to post the highest scoring half, 54 points, by a C-N foe this year.
Marshall went 0-for-3 in the first half but made 10 of 15 shot attempts in the second half ending the game with 31 points and 10 rebounds. She was the only player to finish in double figures for the Lions.
Mars Hill forced 20 turnovers in the game and scored 25 points off of those giveaways including 16 in the second half. The Lions went 19-for-37 from the floor in the final 20 minutes and made 14 foul shots.
The Lady Eagles keep rolling during their road swing with a 2 p.m. tip-off at Coker in the longest journey of the season on tap for Saturday. Fans can listen to the game on 106.3 (WPFT-FM, Sevierville) and online at cneagles.com/live.
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