TOP PHOTO: Skylar Boshears along with her Carson-Newman Lady Eagles await to see if they receive an at-large berth in the 2020 NCAA Women’s Basketball Championships.

JEFFERSON CITY, TN (SPECIAL TO WLAF) – Former Campbell Lady Cougar Skylar Boshears and her Carson-Newman Eagles struggled to make shots on Monday night and lost at home to LMU.

Carson-Newman’s late burst fell just shy in the South Atlantic Conference quarterfinals falling to eight-seeded Lincoln Memorial 78-72 Monday night at Holt Fieldhouse in the rubber affair between the two teams.

“LMU typically plays zone and they guarded us man-to-man and we typically play great against man-to-man,” Carson-Newman coach Mike Mincey said. “Tonight we just got real stagnant. I told them that I appreciate their effort and that they never quit. They continued to try to get us back in the game. The first half I can’t explain. I have never seen us shoot that bad in our facility. You have to get LMU a lot of credit for how they shot. A lot of our shots were open but they just weren’t going down. We will wait on the regional. We have had a good season. We are 15-3. We have some good wins under our belt.”

Braelyn Wykle (Greeneville, Tenn.) led all scorers with 29 points in the game making nine of 20 from the field an all nine foul shots. The sophomore added five boards and two assists.

Addison Byrd (Nashville, Tenn.) added a season-high 20 points burying eight of 12 from the field with five boards. The duo combined for 42 of the team’s 72 points going 17-for-32 from the field while the rest of the roster produced 23 points and went 10-for-35.

“Those are probably the two players that put in the most time shooting in our gym,” Mincey said. “It’s no surprise that they made the most shots. Braelyn tried to carry us and put us on her back. She wasn’t trusting her shot and trying to get to the rim. There were only 13 fouls called on them. If they hadn’t shown up offensively we would have been in even more trouble.”

Five days after scoring a 39-point win over Lincoln Memorial (10-10), the Lady Eagles became the first top-seeded team in the 31-year history to lose a quarterfinal matchup. The Railsplitters eliminate Carson-Newman (15-3) from the postseason for the third time in the last five years.

Mincey’s club sees its 12-game home winning streak end suffering a setback at Holt Fieldhouse for the first time since Feb. 1, 2020. The Lady Eagles had shot better than 50 percent from the floor over their last five home games but made 40 percent Monday, the fourth-lowest of the year.

Lincoln Memorial became the first team to shoot better than 50 percent from the field against the Lady Eagles in 458 days when Wingate did so at Holt Fieldhouse. The Railsplitters went 29-for-55 from the floor making nine three pointers.

Carson-Newman made five of its first 10 shots from the floor in the game and led 11-7 on a trifecta by Wykle with 5:38 to go in the opening period. The Lady Eagles missed their next 10 shots and failed to score over seven minutes watching the visitors score eight unanswered to go ahead 15-11 less than a minute into the second stanza.

With 7:23 to go in the half, C-N trailed 17-16 only to see the Railsplitters double up the Lady Eagles down the stretch 18-9 to go into the locker room ahead 35-25 at halftime, the largest deficit faced by Mincey’s team since being behind by a dozen to No. 20 Anderson on Feb. 1, 2020.

After a back and forth third period, an 8-0 scoring run by the Lady Eagles tied the tally at 49 with 49 seconds to play. Lindsay Profitt hit a driving layup 20 seconds later and the game would never be tied again.

The Railsplitters ripped off a 13-4 run to go ahead by nine 62-53 advantage with 7:31 to play. The margin swelled to a game-high 12 points with 1:52 to play. Carson-Newman responded with an 8-0 run but missed a layup that would have made it a two-point game with a half minute to play.

Lauren Flowers made four foul shots in the final 30 seconds to seal a victory and the upset for the Railsplitters, their second win over a ranked C-N group in the last two months.

Mikayla Kuehne led the visitors in scoring with 21 points on 8-for-14 shooting adding seven rebounds and four assists off of the bench. Profitt added 17 points and three assists. Flowers tallied 14 points and eight boards with Lexi Kiser pouring in 11.

Carson-Newman now awaits its postseason fate with the 2020 NCAA Women’s Basketball Championships selection show scheduled to air on NCAA.com on Sunday night at 10 p.m. (WLAF NEWS PUBLISHED – 03/02/2021-6AM)

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