HARROGATE, Tenn. - The Newberry College women's basketball team closed out its regular season by holding off a furious second half rally from the Lincoln Memorial University Lady Railsplitters, 55-52, in Tex Turner Arena on Saturday evening.

Newberry (21-6, 10-6 SAC) clinched a home game in the 2007 Food Lion South Atlantic Conference Tournament quarterfinals with the win. Pairings for the tournament will be announced Sunday morning.

The Lady Indians were led in scoring by Ashlee Wright, who scored 14 points. Tonique Frasier scored 12 points and grabbed six rebounds for Newberry.

LMU (13-14, 5-11 SAC) was led by Madeline Richards' 13 points.

Newberry never trailed in the game, and led by as many as nine in the first half, as two Tiffany Smalls free throws gave the Lady Indians a 30-21 lead with 2:13 until the break. That would be Newberry's final scoring in the opening 20 minutes, as LMU narrowed the deficit to 30-25 as the teams went to the dressing rooms.

The Lady Railsplitters would narrow the deficit to four points with 17:34 to play before Newberry went on a tear.

Newberry responded by extending its lead to eight, followed by the  two sides trading buckets. The Lady Indians then went on a 12-3 run over six minutes, taking a 52-37 lead on a layup by Anita Bulcher.

But Lincoln Memorial wouldn't go away quietly, holding the Lady Indians scoreless 7:24, going on a 12-0 run to narrow the deficit to 52-49 with 35 seconds to play.

Laura Marquardt was fouled with 18 seconds on the clock, and sank both of her free throws, but LMU's Betsy Bowser nailed a long-range triple with 10 seconds to play to cut the lead to two points.

Monica Alexander drained a free throw with seven seconds on the clock, and the Lady Indians forced Andi Winney to miss a buzzer-beating shot and preserve the win.

The Lady Indians shot 46.0 percent (23-of-50) en route to the victory, while limiting the Lady Railsplitters to 29.3 percent shooting (17-of-58). Newberry won despite sinking no three-pointers (0-of-2).

Newberry's next game will come in Eleazer Arena at 7 p.m. Wednesday in the quarterfinals of the Food Lion South Atlantic Conference Tournament.