VIDEO: Lindsey Taylor Interview
JEFFERSON CITY, Tenn. – Five players scored in double figures and a 12-0 fourth-quarter run anchored an 87-82 Carson-Newman triumph in South Atlantic Conference against first-year foe Limestone Saturday at Holt Fieldhouse to extend its home winning streak to seven.
"It's going to serve us well moving forward," Carson-Newman coach Mike Mincey said. "Limestone gave us everything they had. They have a really good player, [Quin Byrd] that hasn't played this year. She was a shaker and baker. It was a really difficult game for us. Now that we are on the winning side I can look back and we can grow from it. I think it will serve us well. We had to fight through that zone. We changed things up too to try to build back the lead."
In the third meeting between the two schools, the Lady Eagles pick up their first win over the Saints controlling the glass to the tune of a 47-29 advantage assisting on 22 of 32 made field goals.
Braelyn Wykle (Greeneville, Tenn.) scored in double figures for the third straight game to open her sophomore year ending with 21 points, five assists, four rebounds and two steals.
Addison Byrd (Nashville, Tenn.) racked up 15 points adding nine boards and four assists with Harli Smith (Jamestown, Tenn.) adding 13 points, five assists, three caroms and two steals.
Lindsey Taylor (Maryville, Tenn.) registered her first-career collegiate double-double making six of seven shots from the floor ending the night with 13 points and 10 rebounds.
"We really needed a win," Taylor said. "Limestone is a really good team. I knew that I needed to pick it up from last game because I didn't do too good. It's a good thing Sydney [Pearce] was there. My mindset was that I needed to have a better game today.
"It gives me a lot of confidence that my guards trust me to handle it in the post. I haven't been too confident for the last couple games so it builds my confidence for the next couple."
Skylar Boshears (Lafollette, Tenn.) led a solid effort from a bench that scored 24 points netting her first-career double-digit scoring effort with 11 points going 5-for-10 from the field.
7⃣ straight home wins
— Carson-Newman Athletics (@CNathletics) December 12, 2020
✅ First career double-double for @19LindseyTaylor
�� dominate the glass
�� Above 50 percent shooting
☝️ @CNwbasketball victory pic.twitter.com/YHbLf8J8iy
"They gave came in gave us a lot of energy especially in the first half," Mincey said. "Skylar played the way know she can be. She is a big guard. She got backdoor stuff near the rim and was able to finish it. We played all 10 players and all of them brought something to the table. That's what we are preaching to them a lot. One game it might be one player but the next it might be someone else. It's going to be a team situation where we are building toward something and trying to win basketball games."
Limestone jumped out to an 8-4 lead before Carson-Newman used a 10-0 burst and a 19-5 overall run to close out the first quarter of play. The Saints missed 11 of 12 points at one point while the home group responded to a 1-for-5 start by converting 10 of their final 14 field-goal attempts to lead 23-13.
The Saints were red hot to start the second stanza making nine of their first 12 shots of the frame to pull within a deuce at 32-30 with 5:50 to go before the break. A 6-0 run pushed the margin back to 10 before the Lady Eagles settled for a 47-40 lead at halftime.
In the third quarter, the Saints mounted a charge using an 8-2 run courtesy of back-to-back trifectas from Reagan McCray to trim the margin to 62-58 with 2:53 to go in the period.
It was a three-point game entering the fourth when McCray started the period with an old-fashioned three-point play to knot the tally at 65. Carson-Newman responded with a 12-0 run with eight of the points from Wykle.
Limestone did not go quietly getting with a possession twice, 82-79 and 84-82 in the final 40 seconds but four free throws from Qua Hines (Gatlinburg, Tenn.) and one from Smith sealed a 3-0 start to the year.
Corey Fox's team shot 38 percent from the field but made 13 three-pointers being led in the game by 23 points a piece from McCray and Reagan Kargo.
The Lady Eagles are slated to make a journey up to Lynchburg, Va. Sunday afternoon for a 2 p.m. tip-off in an exhibition game against Liberty in the first meeting between the two programs. Audio coverage can be found on cneagles.com/live and The Mountain 106.3 WPFT-FM starting at 1:45 with "The AEC Countdown to Tip-Off".
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