NEWBERRY – Samantha Creed had her second consecutive game with over 20 points as she led the Wolves to a 76-49 drubbing of Brevard College in the women’s basketball home opener and “Gray Matters” game.

Creed (Montmorency, Vic, Australia) finished with 24 points to go along with seven rebounds. Two other Wolves posted double digit scoring lines as Jaya Schultz (Santa Clarita, Calif.) had her first career double-double and career-highs with 14 points and 10 rebounds and Nicola Handreck (Heywood, Vic, Australia) had a career-high 16 points and four assists.

The game honored Lauren Hill, a college basketball freshman at Division III Mount St. Joseph, who is suffering from an inoperable brain tumor. The women's basketball team wore and sold T-shirts marked with the "Play for 22" slogan, a nod to Hill's basketball number, and raised $250 to donate to St. Jude's Hospital. 

Newberry (4-0, 2-0) never trailed during the game, the third time in four games this season they have accomplished the feat. The Wolves jumped out to quick 4-0 lead but Brevard (0-1, 0-1) hung around early and it was 6-4 five minutes into the game before a 11-2 run put Newberry comfortably in the lead for the rest of the game.

A Creed jumper was followed by back-to-back 3-pointers from Handreck and Creed pushed the lead to nine points. Brevard got back within six with the score 20-14 with 10:05 left in the first half but a time consuming 10-0 run spanning 5:20 kept the lead in double digits the rest of the way.  The Wolves took a 39-23 lead into the break.

After some back and forth battling between the two squads to open the second stanza, the closest the Tornados got was 15 points in the second half. Newberry flirted with pushing their lead to 30 points but fell just short at 29 points with 1:09 left in the game and two final free throws by Brevard’s Katie Williams closed out the score at 76-49.

The Wolves held a decisive edge in every category except in free throw shooting. Newberry shot a measly 58.3 percent on 14-24 shooting, their lowest percentage of the year. The Wolves outrebounded the Tornados 47-29 including 22-10 on the offensive end. That led to a 25-11 edge in second chance points for Newberry.

Newberry will be back on the road on Tuesday for a contest at Catawba for a 6 p.m. tip.