SALISBURY, N.C. – The Newberry Wolves women’s basketball team stayed undefeated as they grinded out a road victory in Goodman Gymnasium by knocking off the host Catawba Indians, 72-64.

The Wolves (5-0), who debuted today at No. 11 in the D2SIDA national poll, were led by a pair of junior guards in Samantha Creed (Montmorency, Vic, Australia) and Emily Perry (Nabour, Qld, Australia). Creed posted her fourth game of scoring more than 20 points while Perry set a new career-high for points scored. Creed had 25 total points, five assists and three rebounds. Perry had 18 points, five rebounds and three assists. Perry’s previous career-high was 14 points.

The game was a tale of runs by both teams. Newberry jumped out early and started the game off with hot shooting and it led to a 20-5 run over the first 8:22 of the game. Creed scored the Wolves’ first seven points of the game alone as they also got 3-pointers by Nicola Handreck (Haywood, Vic, Australia) and Kaitlynn Pacholke (Tampa, Fla.).

Catawba (3-2, 1-2) was not to outdone. Only getting called for one team foul in the first half, they responded by going on a long run of their own as they embarked on a 22-8 run covering the remaining 11:38 of the first half as Newberry took only a 28-27 lead into half.

The Wolves again tried to pull away at the beginning of the second stanza. Newberry had an 11-5 run to lead 39-32 behind a pair of three’s from Zara Pearson (Echuca, Vic, Australia). Pearson was the third Newberry player to score in double figures and they needed her shooting as she had 10 points in the second half and went 3-6 from behind the arc.

After some back and forth play, Catawba had Chloe Bully, a preseason first team all-South Atlantic Conference selection, went on a personal 7-0 run to close the gap. She hit a three and then had back-to-back layups after a steal on an inbounds pass. Newberry had their lead cut to 54-51 with 6:58 left in the contest, the smallest the lead would get the rest of the way.

Haylee Lepaio (Bathurst, NSW, Australia) hit a jumper and back-to-back three’s by Creed and Perry helped Newberry go up by 11 and with 1:58 remaining.

A couple of turnovers and fouls prevented Newberry from icing the game as a late 6-0 run by the Indians had them within 4 at 68-64 with 21 seconds left. Newberry would ice the game thanks to four free throws by Perry in the last 20 seconds to take the victory.

Newberry will hit the road this holiday weekend and head to Indiana to take on Bellarmine and Southern Indiana on Friday and Saturday in the USI Thanksgiving Classic. The games are at 2:30 p.m. on both days.