Box Score NEWBERRY – The Newberry College women’s basketball team lost a tight battle at home to the Wingate University Bulldogs on Wednesday night, 68-60.
The contest, a battle of two regionally ranked teams as well as the second and third place teams in the South Atlantic Conference, was back and forth. The score was tied 10 times and the lead changed seven times. Wingate was able to pull away after using a 10-2 run that gave them a 59-54 edge with 3:52 remaining.
Newberry (18-9, 14-7) held the lead for a majority of the game as they were up for 19:17 of it. The two teams were locked in a tie for 7:18 of the contest. Haylee Lepaio (Bathurst, NSW, Australia) had her 10th double-double of the season with 19 points and 10 rebounds. Samantha Creed (Montmorency, Vic, Australia) had nine points and surpassed the 1,000 point mark for her career.
Sophomore forward Jaya Schultz (Santa Clarita, Calif.) had 11 points and five rebounds for the Wolves in the loss.
Newberry started off the contest shooting the ball well and jumped out to an 11-0 lead, the largest by either team in the game, with 15:09 left in the first half. Wingate responded by going on a 14-4 run of their own and eventually took their first lead three minutes later as it was 20-19 with 9:58 left in the half.
The teams swapped the lead before Creed went 1-for-2 from the free throw line and Newberry took a 33-32 lead back to the locker room. The Wolves shot 52.1-percent from the floor in that half and the Bulldogs shot 48.3-percent.
The second half saw Newberry go cold from the field. They only shot 30.8-percent in field goals and 12.5-percent from 3-point range. Wingate shot 40.0-percent but didn’t make a single 3-pointer. Wingate had 18 second-chance points compared to Newberry’s seven.
The Wolves had given themselves a cushion with a 52-47 lead thanks to a technical foul assessed to Wingate’s bench. Newberry made both free throws but turned the ball over their next two possessions and coupled with a foul allowed Wingate to start on the run that would give them the advantage the rest of the way.
The Wolves will now travel to Carson-Newman on Saturday in another big regional matchup and will be looking for a win before they come home Wednesday to host a SAC quarterfinal game that will be at 6 p.m. in Eleazer Arena.
