DAHLONEGA, Ga. - The Newberry College women's basketball team opened their play in the 2009 Chick-fil-A Tip-Off Classic Hosted by North Georgia on Friday night with a game against the hosting-institution North Georgia. Newberry (2-0) held off the Saints' board play and came away with a 58-50 win.
"I'm very proud of our kids once again," said John Lesaine after the game. "North Georgia has a solid team but we rose to the occasion and earned a hard-fought road win."
The first half was highly contested and hard fought through its entirety. Newberry took the early lead, but the opening period would see two ties and three lead changes before it was closed.
Approximately midway through the opening period, Newberry opened up a 17-6 scoring run that would span the next eight minutes and gave the scarlet and gray a nine-point lead at 25-16. The tables turned again in the last three minutes of the half; however, as the Saints outscored Newberry 8-2 to close the period down by three at 27-24.
Newberry started slow, shooting only 1-8 from the field up until the first media timeout. By the end of the half they had raised their field-goal percentage to 32.3%.
Helen McKinney (Owensboro, Ky.) led the scoring in the first half with 11 points, shooting 2-4 from three points. She also had five rebounds in the opening period, as did LeAnne Watson (Stone Mountain, Ga.).
The second half saw the teams exchanging possessions relatively evenly. Newberry prevented the Saints from creating any scoring runs and bringing the game any closer. The Saints never again trailed by any less than four.
Newberry held off the Saints despite being out-rebounded by the Saints on both ends of the floor and allowing the Saints 18 second-chance opportunities from offensive rebounds.
Newberry combated the rebounding of the Saints with the exterior attack, converting seven more three pointers than the Saints.
McKinney ended the night with 21 points and 5 rebounds. Amy Browne (Maroochydore, Australia) followed up with 9 points. Anita Bulcher (Russia, Ohio) had 9 rebounds on the night, 7 of which came in the second half.
The two schools had never met previously, and Newberry is now 1-0 against the Saints.
Newberry will continue their play in the tournament tomorrow with a game against another unfamiliar foe in Montevallo. This will also be the first time these two school meet. The game is scheduled to begin at 2 p.m. and live statistics will be available at the following link:
http://www.saintssports.com/sports/wbkb/2009-10/tip-off_classic/tipoffclassic
