ANDERSON - The Newberry College women's basketball team made it two South Atlantic Conference victories in a row as the Wolves took down SAC newcomer Anderson, 54-50.
On a night when conference leading scorer Helen McKinney (Owensboro, Ky.) struggled to find her rhythm from the field, it was fellow senior guard Jessica Bearzatto (Melbourne, Australia) who picked up the slack. With the ball game knotted at 50 with under a minute to play, it was four straight Bearzatto free throws that gave Newberry (8-5, 3-2 SAC) the win.
Anderson (6-7, 2-3 SAC) plucked away at the Newberry lead and finally took a two-point advantage over the Wolves with 2:03 to play. But McKinney sunk her just fourth basket of the night after a pump fake shook off the Trojan defender to tie up the game. Bearzatto then gave the Wolves the win from the charity stripe.
“Helen was struggling all game but kept fighting and fighting and she finally came up for us big,” said Newberry head coach Sean Page. “Jessica really stepped and got herself some open looks and did a lot of good things for us. She's a senior and a leader and that showed tonight.”
Bearzatto scored a season high 18 points, going 6-of-10 from the field and 5-of-5 from the free throw line.
The scarlet and gray went into the locker room down one at the half, 28-27, but held the Trojans to just 22 second half points while putting in another 27 of their own.
“It was a tough win and we struggled again offensively,” added Page. “It came down to our tough defense again. Whenever you have the ability to hold a team to just 33 percent from the field you put yourself in a good position to win.”
Newberry picked up nine steals during the ballgame, three by Keisha Henderson (Columbia, S.C.) and two each by McKinney and Ellie Gleeson (New South Wales, Australia). The Wolves also outrebounded the Trojans 54-50 and were led by Leanne Watson's (Stone Mountain, Ga.) six with Briana Johnson (Irmo, S.C.) and Brittany Brown (Fort Myers, Fla.) each grabbing five.
The Wolves will be back at it again this Saturday, Jan. 15, as they travel to Jefferson City, Tenn., to take on Carson-Newman at 2 p.m.
