NEWBERRY- The Newberry College women’s basketball team fell to Lincoln Memorial 68-56, on Saturday afternoon.

Nicola Handreck put the Wolves on the board first with a layup at the 9:31 mark. Sydnie Anderson fouled Handreck on the way up but Handreck missed the free throw.

Newberry was quiet on offense for the next 2 minutes and 20 seconds until Samantha Creed made a layup for a 4-2 lead. Lincoln Memorial took back the lead until the 5:40 mark when Emily Perry made a layup for Newberry for the 6-6 tie.

Newberry had back-to-back layups in the last three minutes with Creed making one with 3:03 left followed by Shelby Britten making one at 2:19. Hannah Lepaio finished the quarter for Newberry with a jumper off a pass from Jaya Schultz.

At the end of the first quarter, the Lady Railsplitters had a 15-12 lead. Creed led Newberry with four points, one steal and one assist.

In the second quarter, Britten scored the first basket for Newberry with a layup at the 8:36 mark. Britten then went 1-for-1 at the line after being fouled by Josey Harding with 7:04 left until halftime.

In the next four minutes Lincoln Memorial increased its lead to 27-15. Creed lowered the lead to 27-17 with two free throws at the 3:32 mark. Schultz was sent to the line with 3:07 left and made both. Samara Hill and Meg Essex closed out the second quarter with a 3-pointer and a layup, respectively.

At the half, Newberry was down 35-24 with Creed leading the Wolves with six points. Essex, Creed and Britten all had one steal each with Essex having two blocks also. Schultz grabbed three rebounds, scored two points and had one assist.

Just 42 seconds in, Britten started the third quarter off just like the second with a layup. At the 6:16 mark Essex hit a layup to cut Lincoln Memorial’s lead to 40-28. Britten followed with a layup a minute later before Essex went 1-for-1 at the line with 4:49 left.

In the last three minutes Newberry scored 10 points with Creed and Lepaio scoring four points each. In a minute span (3:02- 2:04) Newberry scored three layups. Britten scored the first one, followed by Creed then Lepaio. Creed hit another layup at the 1:16 mark and Lepaio finished the quarter with two free throws in the last 26 seconds.

Going into the final quarter, the Lady Railsplitters had a 60-41 lead. Britten took over the lead in points with 11 followed by Creed who scored 10.

The Wolves scored 15 points in the final quarter with nine of them coming from the arch. Newberry didn’t score until the 7:31 mark when Hill drained a 3-pointer off a pass from Britten.  Two minutes later Creed hit a 3-pointer to cut Lincoln Memorial’s lead to 66-47.

With 4:38 left in the game, Britten made a layup followed by a 3-pointer from Creed one minute and 38 seconds later. With 23 seconds left Brandi Hall hit a jumper off a pass from Kirsten Dunsmore followed by a layup from Perry to close the game.

For the game, Creed finished with 16 points followed by Britten with 13. Schultz led the team in rebounds with seven and Hill led the team in assists with three. As a team, Newberry went 72.7% from the free throw line.

The Wolves don't play again until New Years Eve (Thursday, Dec. 31) when they face Benedict at 2 p.m.