Lander Women's Basketball Advances to Southeast Regional Championship Game

Lander (27-3) advanced to the national Sweet 16 and will play seventh seed Tusculum College for the Southeast Regional championship Monday night at 7 p.m. at Horne Arena.

Monday night's winner advances to the Elite Eight to be played in St. Joseph, Mo.

Carson-Newman ended its season at 24-7.

Non-starting sophomore guards Robbins and Webb sparked the Bearcats with 15 and 14 points, respectively, each making big baskets when the Bearcats needed them most.

Another sophomore guard Brittni Johnson also scored 14 points for Lander while junior post players Shannon McKever and Tasheba Butler added 12 and 11 points, respectively. Small came off the bench to score nine points, including a pair of old-fashioned three-point plays, while grabbing a team-high seven rebounds.

Sophomore guard Jasmine Judge added three 3-pointers for nine points for the Bearcats, while sophomore guards Ciara Lyons and Mukia Myrick led the team with six assists apiece. Sophomore reserve post Keondra Barnes was big for Lander in the first half, making four of five shots for eight points.

Carson-Newman was plagued by poor shooting, hitting only 31 percent of its shots (23 of 75). Senior forward Shari Buford, senior guard Ashley Kyle, and junior guard Mandy Mendenhall led the Eagles with 13 points apiece while junior guard Katlin Moore added 10 points.

Buford led Carson-Newman with 10 rebounds while sophomore forward Zoriah Williams pulled down eight boards. Kyle led the Eagles with five assists.

Lander was in need of a spark after Carson-Newman had cut a 20-point second-half deficit down to 11, 65-54, with a little more than eight minutes left in the game. Webb ignited the Bearcats by driving to the goal as the shot clock was about to expire, laying in a basket and converting the three-point play to end a long scoring drought.

In the next few seconds, Robbins drove in for a fast-break layup off a long pass from Johnson, Johnson scored another fast-break basket off a steal by Robbins, and Small converted a three-point play off a Robbins assist to complete a 10-0 run to extend the lead to 75-54 with seven minutes to go.

After Carson-Newman ended the run with a basket, Robbins went high off the glass for a layup to extend the lead back to 21, 77-56, at the six-minute mark, and Johnson added a spectacular shot to continue the momentum. Judge hit a 3-pointer with four minutes to go, increasing Lander's lead to 84-62.

Small converted another three-point play to give the Bearcats their largest lead of the game at 25, 87-62, with 3:42 left while Judge hit another trey to push the score to 90-64 at the three-minute mark.

Robbins had another steal and driving layup to increase Lander's lead to 30, 94-64, with two minutes left.

Both teams started off well as McKever scored twice inside, and Johnson nailed a baseline jumper and a 3-pointer to stake Lander to an early 9-4 lead. But Carson-Newman twice pulled within a possession at 9-6 and 11-8. Meanwhile, the Bearcats could not build on their lead because they missed eight of their first nine shots from 3-point range. Finally, Robbins hit a trey and Barnes added her second inside basket of the night to give Lander a 16-10 lead at the 12-minute mark.

Johnson hit a 3-pointer from the left corner to give the Bearcats a 21-13 advantage with 10 minutes left. Kyle hit two free throws to pull the Eagles within 23-18 with 8:05 to go. Lander responded with five unanswered points when Butler hit two free throws and Webb nailed the first of her three 3-pointers for the team's biggest lead of the game, 28-18, with 7:20 left.

After Buford scored inside for Carson-Newman, the Bearcats went on a 10-0 run on McKever's tip-in, a Webb 3-pointer, a Robbins layup off a long pass from McKever, and another Webb trey to extend their lead to 18, 38-20, at the five-minute mark.

The Eagles ended the run with a 6-0 run of their own when Mendenhall hit a mid-range jumper, Dominique Jackson hit a free throw, then added a three-point play to pull Carson-Newman within 38-26 with 3:52 to go. The Eagles had three more possessions to cut into the lead but failed to convert.