HICKORY, N.C. - The second-seeded Newberry College women's basketball team earned a berth in the Food Lion South Atlantic Conference Tournament championship game with a 66-56 win over third-seeded Carson-Newman in the CVCC Arena on Saturday night.
Newberry (21-7) will face off against fourth-seeded Tusculum College at 4 p.m. Sunday in the championship game with a berth in the NCAA Tournament on the line. The two teams split their regular season meetings, with each team winning at home.
Newberry was led by the 11th consecutive double-double from senior Anita Bulcher (Russia, Ohio). The SAC Scholar Athlete scored a game-high 22 points and grabbed 10 rebounds. Her 11 straight double-doubles ranks sixth in the history of Division II. She also has 21 double-doubles this season, which is fifth in Division II history, and 31 in her career, which is tied for 21st in D-II history.
The illustrious senior was joined in double digit scoring by Jessica Bearzatto (Melbourne, Australia), who scored 14 points and also dished out eight assists and grabbed six rebounds. LeAnne Watson (Stone Mountain, Ga.) was just short of her own double-double with 11 points and nine rebounds, while Helen McKinney (Owensboro, Ky.) also scored 11 points.
Carson-Newman (23-6) was led by a 12-point, 10-rebound double-double from Shari Buford (Hampton, Ga.). Mandy Mendenhall (Kingston Springs, Tenn.) scored 11 points and Katlin Moore (Fort Mill, S.C.) and Zoriah Williams (Calera, Ala.) each netted 10 points.
It was a tale of two halves for the Newberry squad, as the scarlet and gray were limited to 20 points in the opening half and trailed, 27-20, at the break. The scarlet and gray led, 10-8, with 16:13 left in the half before Carson-Newman rattled off 12 straight points over the next seven minutes to take a 20-10 lead. The Eagles led by as many as 11 points in a first half that saw Newberry connect on only 23.5% (8-of-34) of its field goal attempts.
But the scarlet and gray put their second half struggles behind them in the second half, outscoring C-N by 17 points to take the win. After Moore opened the half with a three-pointer to stretch the lead back into double digits, Newberry scored nine straight points to cut the lead to one point at 30-29 with 15:22 to play.
Carson-Newman held onto a slight lead for the next eight minutes, but a pair of Bulcher free throws with 7:17 to play gave Newberry its first lead since the early stages of the game at 43-42.
With five minutes to play, the score was tied at 48-all, but Newberry closed out the game on an 18-8 surge to claim the win. Newberry shot 48.1% (13-of-27) from the floor in the second half and forced 12 Carson-Newman turnovers in the period. The Eagles were only 8-of-26 (30.8%) from the floor in the second half.
Newberry also made the most of its free throw attempts, connecting on 24-of-30 (80.0%) opportunities throughout the game. The scarlet and gray also held a 43-39 rebounding advantage in the game.
Newberry Quotes
Head coach Sean Page: "We came out a little flat, maybe over-wrought from the situation. We just weren't comfortable or in any rhythm. But defensively, we were OK. We kept them to 27 points in the first half. In the locker room, I said I didn't think we could play any worse. So we felt pretty good about ourselves in the second half."
"We also got (Anita) Bulcher going, getting her the ball. We know if we get the ball to Anita Bulcher as much as we can, eventually good things happen."
"We played more zone in that game than we have all year. That may have disrupted their rhythm a little bit."
(On playing Tusculum for the tournament championship): "We know they are going to be a big challenge for us. But we know if we go out and compete, we have a good chance."
