ANDERSON – The Newberry College women’s basketball team lost a tough road game at Anderson on Saturday afternoon, 81-72.

Newberry was led by junior guard Samantha Creed (Montmorency, Vic, Australia) who had 19 points to go along with three assists. Haylee Lepaio (Bathurst, NSW, Australia) was the only other Newberry player in double figures with 14 points and 11 rebounds for her team leading seventh double-double this season. She did this in spite of being in foul trouble for the entire second half.

The Trojans (15-3, 12-2) and Wolves (13-7, 9-5), who are ranked No. 5 and No. 10 in the D2SIDA Southeast Region Poll, respectively, faced off for the second time this season after Anderson took the first meeting, 64-59.

Anderson was in control for a majority of the contest as the game was tied three times and the lead changed four times, all in the first half.

Despite that, Newberry wouldn’t go down without a fight even trailing by as many as 15 points with 9:40 remaining, 65-50. The Wolves came back using a 9-2 run to make it 65-59 with 5:07 left. The run was started by a Creed jumper and included a big Zara Pearson (Echuca, Vic, Australia) 3-pointer as well as a Lepaio layup.

The Trojans would respond and maintain a lead but Newberry created a few chances to get themselves within one possession but couldn’t quite string together enough of a run. Emily Perry (Nambour, Qld, Australia) hit a 3-pointer from the left wing and Pearson hit a baseline jumper to make it 72-67 with 1:59 left. Anderson would then close the game going 9-10 from the free throw line.

The Wolves have yet to win a South Atlantic Conference game when less than three players reach double digit scoring. Newberry did have a slight advantage on the boards, 38-37 ,against one of the top rebounding teams in the conference as well as a 20-9 advantage in second chance points. The Trojans finished outscoring Newberry 34-22 in the paint coupled with 8-18 shooting from 3-point range for a 50.9 percent clip from the field.

The last lead change of the game came as Newberry led 18-17 with 9:40 left in the first half. The Trojans then pulled out on in front by using a 6-0 run to make it 24-18. The Wolves made it 26-22 but another Anderson burst, this time a 7-2 run, helped give them a 38-31 lead going into the break. Anderson dominated in the paint outscoring the Wolves 22-8 in that category.

Newberry will travel to Wingate on Wednesday night for their first matchup with the first place SAC team.