Staff report

SALISBURY — Catawba’s men’s basketball team didn’t shoot the lights out, but did just about everything else exceptionally well in a strong 87-68 win over Carson-Newman on Saturday.

The key to the South Atlantic Conference game was the 3-point line, as Carson-Newman’s Nick Branegan, who scored 64 in a single game not long ago, leads Division II in 3-point makes per game. Branegan scored 18 to pace the Eagles in front of 233 fans in Goodman Arena, but he was only 2-for-7 from 3, and that meant a win for Catawba.

Catawba (12-4, 9-3) had almost as many blocked shots (7) as turnovers committed (8), and it’s hard to lose when that happens.

Justin Banks had three blocks.

Carson-Newman (16-5, 9-4)  turned it over 20 times and was limited to seven offensive rebounds. That translated to a whopping 25 more shot attempts by Catawba. Catawba shot 45 percent, a figure that was enhanced by 10 made 3s. Catawba actually made three more 3s than the Eagles. That wasn’t supposed to happen.

Catawba was leading by only three points well into the game, but a 22-10 advantage to close the first half gave the Indians a 46-31 halftime cushion.

Carson-Newman couldn’t make a serious run in the second half and Catawba took a relatively easy victory in what was expected to be a dogfight.

Javveon Jones scored 17 to lead the Indians. He made three 3-pointers.

Catawba needed to protect the home court, as the next three are on the road, starting with a Wednesday visit to Newberry.

The win was the 155th for head coach Rob Perron, who is in his ninth season at the helm of the Indians. He has passed Earl Ruth for third place in the history of the Catawba program, but it’s going to take some work to catch up to Jim Baker (344) and Sam Moir (546).

Carson-Newman      31    37    — 68

Catawba                    46    41     — 87

CATAWBA – Jones 17, White 13, Tinsley 12, Epps 11, Robinson 9, Thomas 8, Banks 7, Wallace 5, Bivins 3, Nelson 2.