EVANSVILLE, Ind. – The Newberry Wolves women’s basketball team dropped a heart-wrenching game to the Bellarmine Knights on Saturday afternoon, 63-58.

Samantha Creed (Montmorency, Vic, Australia) had 15 points to lead Newberry as four Wolves scored in double figures but a lack of bench production led to their lowest scoring output of the season. Haylee Lepaio (Bathurst, NSW, Australia) had her second double double of the year with 12 points and 11 rebounds and Emily Perry (Nambour, Old, Australia) had 10 points and four rebounds.

Newberry took a quick 6-2 lead out of the gate but didn’t open the scoring for the first time all season. Bellarmine (3-1, 0-0) battled back into the game as the teams tied seven times and the lead changed hands on 12 different occasions.

Bellarmine’s bench outscored Newberry 29-10 in what proved to be the defining statistic. The Wolves, who had shot better than 40 percent in each of their first five games, dipped just below that mark as they went 20-54 for a still respectable 37 percent from the field.

A 35-34 halftime lead for Newberry carried over for the first four minutes of the second half until Mackenzie Martinez hit a pair of free throws to give the Knights a one point lead and they eventually pushed it to 44-39.

Newberry’s offense exploded as they went on a 16-5 run covering about eight minutes to give the Wolves a six point lead with 6:50 left in the game. Newberry clung to a small lead as the game wound down but a Morgan Clemons layup with 36 seconds left put the Knights up for good.

A last attempt by Perry from behind the arc to tie with 10 seconds left came up short and Bellarmine escaped with the win.

Newberry will be back in action again tomorrow as they take on the host school, the University of Southern Indiana, at 2:30 p.m.