Women's Basketball | 2/13/2015 3:38:00 PM

Wingate, N.C.----The Wingate University women's basketball team (17-7 overall, 15-2 SAC) celebrates Alumni Day and Play 4Kay Day Saturday, hosting Carson-Newman for a 2 p.m. South Atlantic Conference contest in Cuddy Arena and Thomas Koontz Family Court. On Wednesday, the Bulldogs earned a hard-fought 50-44 SAC home-court victory over Queens. WU junior forward Morgan McGee (Durham, N.C.) had game-high honors with 13 points.
 
Wingate graduate student forward Andrea Bertrand (Midlothian, Va.) had 10 points and a team-high eight rebounds. Bulldog redshirt senior point guard Brittany Hill (Mechanicsville, Va.) had eight points, five rebounds, four assists and four steals in a team-high 36 minutes played. The Royals committed 24 turnovers which the Bulldogs converted into 25 points. Queens scored only 10 points off 15 Wingate mistakes.
 
In the first 2014-15 meeting between the two teams, Wingate built a 16-point second half lead and endured a furious Carson-Newman rally to claim a 66-63 decision at Holt Field House Saturday, Jan. 3. Wingate sophomore guard Shelby Tricoli (Waynesville, N.C.) matched her career-high with 22 points. The loss was the Eagles' first of the 2014-15 campaign.
 
Tricoli scored 20 of her game-high 22 points in the first half, nailing four-of-four three-point field goals in the opening frame. Wingate senior guard Kelli Bonner (Yadkinville, N.C.) supported her backcourt mate with 11 points, hitting two triples in the first half as the Bulldogs took a 41-28 lead to the halftime locker room.
 
The C-N Eagles won four of the five major specialty statistics categories in the January contest, including a whopping 36-22 edge for points in the paint. Hill was in the triple-double neighborhood with eight points, six assists and five steals. She led both teams in helpers and in steals, while adding four rebounds to her portfolio.
 
Dunbar leads the Bulldogs with 11.4 points per game and 9.7 rebounds per game. She shares the SAC rebounding lead with Newberry senior center Haylee Lepaio (Bathurst, New South Wales, Australia). For her illustrious career, Dunbar has 21 double-doubles and 28 double-figure rebounding games. The league's leading rebounder, Dunbar elevates her play in SAC contests with her 11.9 points per game and 10.1 rebounds per game.
 
Wingate has three active players averaging double-figure points. In addition to Dunbar, McGee (10.8 points per game) and Tricoli (10.3 points per game) also average double digits. Bertrand is on the outskirts of double-figure land with her 9.7 points per game. She is second on the team charts with her 5.4 rebounds per game.
 
Hill is the straw that stirs the drink for the Bulldogs, as she leads the team in assists (109) and steals (67) from her point guard position. She leads SAC regulars with her 2.2 assist-to-turnover ratio. Wingate has two guards on the SAC top five charts for three-point field goal percentage: Tricoli is second (46.4), while Bonner is fifth (37.5). Bonner has 51 triples, while Tricoli has nailed 45 three-pointers.
 
Carson-Newman junior guard Tatum Burstrom (Maryville, Tenn.) and freshman forward Jecca Simerly (Talbott, Tenn.) share the Eagles' team lead with 10.3 points per game each. Simerly is the top rebounder with 5.6 boards per game. The first-year Eagle leads the SAC with her 59.2 individual field goal percentage.
 
Burstrom had 20 points as the Eagles avenged an early-season road loss with a 75-62 victory over Brevard Saturday. Carson-Newman used a 16-0 run stretching from the end of the first half to the beginning of the second half to secure the victory. The Eagles are 16-7 overall and 10-7 in the SAC.
 
Wingate hosts Coker Wednesday at 6 p.m. The Bulldogs will celebrate Relay for Life with a Purple Out. The visit to Wingate is the first of three straight road games for the C-N Eagles. They venture to Anderson Wednesday at 6 p.m. The AU Trojans share first place in the SAC standings with the WU Bulldogs.