JEFFERSON CITY, Tenn. - Despite a season-high scoring outburst from Anderson sophomore forward Breonda Shannon, the Carson-Newman women's basketball team held off the Trojans, 74-65, Saturday afternoon at Holt Fieldhouse.
Anderson (11-15, 7-11 SAC) suffered its third consecutive setback and will enter next week's conference tournament as the eighth seed, while Carson-Newman (13-15, 9-9 SAC) claimed its second straight win and three of its last four outings. The Eagles claimed the sixth seed and will square off against No. three seed Lenoir-Rhyne on Wednesday.
The Trojans trailed just once early in the first half, at 4-2, as Shannon scored six of Anderson's first 11 points and was a perfect four-of-four from the field in the first 20 minutes.
Sophomore forward Tilde Ahlin's 3-pointer boosted the Trojans advantage to 14-8 at the 11:01 mark and Shannon followed with another basket to give AU its largest lead of the half, at 16-8, less than a minute later.
The Trojans still led by six with just more than three minutes remaining in the half, but the Lady Eagles chipped away and eventually knotted the score at 31-31 just before halftime.
Carson-Newman opened the second stanza with a 9-3 run to open a six-point lead and pushed out to a 46-37 lead, its largest of the contest to that point, with 14:27 remaining before AU rallied to close within 50-47 over the next three minutes. Seniors Ashley Abed and Alexa Neal ignited the outburst by sandwiching a pair of 3-pointers around a Carson-Newman basket and two free throws from Neal pulled the Trojans within one point at the 11:40 mark.
But it was as close as AU would get, as Carson-Newman answered with a 14-5 run over a five-minute span to edge ahead by double figures with 6:22 left in the contest.
Shannon narrowly missed a double-double, grabbing eight rebounds to go along with her game-high scoring tally, while guard Alissa Diaz added 19 points on 7-of-10 shooting from the field. Alexa Neal garnered 10 points and dished out a team-high five assists.
Anderson will open league tournament action at top-seeded Tusculum on Wednesday. The Trojans split the regular-season series with the Lady Pioneers, falling 76-52 in Greeneville, Tenn., in mid-January before upsetting Tusculum, 67-65, just 10 days ago at the Abney Center. Tip-off is scheduled for 7 p.m.
Listen to all the action at www.redzonemedia.com
