Former Campbell Lady Cougar Skylar Boshears (middle) and her Carson-Newman teammates celebrate winning the South Atlantic Conference regular season championship.

JEFFERSON CITY, TN (SPECIAL TO WLAF) – In the final regular-season game of the year, No. 13 Carson-Newman picked up its largest win of the year throttling Lincoln Memorial 85-46 Wednesday evening at Holt Fieldhouse behind 52 percent shooting and active defense to win its second regular-season title in four years.

The Lady Eagles secure their sixth overall regular-season crown and their fourth outright title in the history of the program behind their largest win of the season. Wednesday was the 12th consecutive home win tying the second-longest in program history.

For the fifth straight home game Carson-Newman (15-2, 15-2) shot above 50 percent from the field going 34-for-66 from the floor, 52 percent, and making nine of 17 from long distance.

Lincoln Memorial (8-10, 7-10) turned the ball over 19 times leading to 25 points off of giveaways as C-N was plus-12, 44-32, on the glass.

Braelyn Wykle (Greeneville, Tenn.) led the team in scoring with 22 points in 26 minutes going 9-for-13 from the field making four of seven from long distance adding three assists, three boards and two steals.

Lindsey Taylor (Maryville, Tenn.) tallied her seventh double-double of the year posting 17 points, 10 rebounds and a career-high three blocks. The sophomore went 7-for-10 from the field.

Skylar Boshears (LaFollette, Tenn.) added 10 points off of the bench. Senior Madison Bunch (Morristown, Tenn.) added six points, five rebounds and three assists with fellow senior Qua Hines (Gatlinburg, Tenn.) scoring eight points and dishing out four helpers.

After trailing by five early, LMU tied the score at 11 with three minutes to go in the period. C-N answered with an 8-0 burst in less than 90 seconds with Abby Wilson (Kingston, Tenn.) hitting a right-wing jumper to cap the burst. The visitors scored the final three of the period to close the gap to 19-14 after 10 minutes.

In the second stanza, an 11-0 scoring sequence highlighted a period where the Lady Eagles outscored the Railsplitters 19-5. It was the fewest points scored against Mincey’s club in any quarter this year as LMU went 2-for-13 from the field and failed to score over a 4:09 stretch.

Mincey’s unit was on fire in the third period making 12 of 17 shots from the field taking a 69-33 advantage into the final period behind a 31-14 frame.

Spanning the third and fourth quarters, Carson-Newman ripped off a 21-0 scoring burst, the longest of the year, holding the ‘Splitters scoreless for nearly six minutes as the lead reached a season-high 46 points at 81-35 with 6:47 to go in the game. Despite failing to score in the final 3:38 of game action the home crew secured an 85-46 win.

Lincoln Memorial had shot above 40 percent in seven straight games but was held to 35 percent. It entered the game ranked 13th in the country in three-point efficiency but went 3-for-17 from deep, 18 percent.

Lauren Flowers was the only player to score in double figures netting 13 points adding seven rebounds. Mikayla Kuehne chipped in five points, eight boards and three assists off of the bench and Jordan Maney scored nine points going 4-for-14 from the field.

The Lady Eagles get a first-round bye in the expanded 2021 SAC Women’s Basketball Championship and will play at Holt Fieldhouse on Monday night at 5:30 against the winner of the Coker and Lincoln Memorial game in the eight versus nine matchup. Broadcast coverage will air on cneagles.com/live in video and audio formats with local radio coverage on The Mountain 106.3 WPFT-FM, Sevierville. (WLAF NEWS PUBLISHED – 02/24/2021-8PM)