Sanders breaks into SAC scoring top 10 as C-N controls second half versus Coker
Carson-Newman (10-4, 7-3 South Atlantic Conference) held Coker (8-6, 5-5 SAC) to 24 percent shooting in the second half as the Eagles used a 12-2 second half run to take an 87-77 win over the Cobras Saturday afternoon at Holt Fieldhouse.
The win keeps Carson-Newman in second place in the SAC standings.
Ish Sanders (Cleveland, Tenn.) buried 25 points. He now has 1,640 points for his career which puts him 10th on the South Atlantic Conference’s all-time scoring list. He moves past Lenoir-Rhyne’s Roman Davis and his 1,619 points. Sanders needs four more points to catch Helgi Magnussen of Catawba. Mars Hill’s Walt Baxley sits in eighth with 1,655 points.
“He’s showed so much growth, even in the last month,” Carson-Newman coach Chuck Benson said. “He’s cut down on taking bad shots and giving it up to create for his teammates. There are so many positives to his game, especially in the past month.”
Carson-Newman hadn’t won a game this season when trailing at the half. Coker led the Eagles 45-40 at the break after outrebounding the Eagles 19-7 and shooting 57 percent from the field and 58 percent from three. However C-N opened the half on an 11-1 run to take a five-point lead following a Jared Johnson (Springfield, Mass.) trey.
The Eagles and Cobras exchanged several second half runs with Coker tying the game at 64 with 8:54 remaining when the Cobras’ Julian Nelson drained three consecutive triples. However, C-N powered out of the tie with a 12-2 run following a Carson Brooks (Knoxville, Tenn.) two-hand jam. Coker would draw no closer than eight the rest of the way.
“Coker’s an outstanding opponent,” Benson said. “They’re as physical and athletic as anyone in this league. They nailed some threes early and that unglued us a bit. We had to maintain poise through the half and made a smidge of an adjustment to match better with their shooters. We were able to contest inside and the perimeter with that and it really played heavily into the second half of this game.”
Antoine Davis (Rustburg, Va.) added 20 points for the Eagles. He was eight-for-12 from the field and a perfect three-for-three from treyball land. Johnson and Brooks each added 14 points for the Eagles.
The Eagles connected on 53 percent of their shots and 56 percent of their threes.
C-N only allowed Coker to sink two shots inside the three-point arc in the second half. The Cobras finished 13-of-33 from deep. Nelson put up 23 points – the most the Eagles’ had surrendered to an individual player this year. Jonathan Gardner and Eren Moses finished with 12 and 10, respectively.
The Eagles outrebounded Coker 27-15 in the second half.
“They were missing shots and that gave us more opportunities to get boards,” Benson said. “But to their credit, they established their game on the glass in the first half. But it was the nature of what happened, thanks to pressure on the perimeter forcing them to take contested shots in the second half.”
Benson’s Bunch hits the road for the first time in two games Wednesday for a contest with archrival Tusculum. Tipoff from Pioneer Arena is set for 8 p.m. Pregame coverage on the Eagle Sports Network starts at 7:45 p.m. on 106.3 ESPN Radio The Zone (WPFT-FM, Sevierville) and online at cneagles.com/live.
