GREENVILLE – Haylee Lepaio broke the school’s all-time scoring record and helped push the No. 3 Wolves past No. 7 Lenoir-Rhyne and back into the South Atlantic Conference championship game for the first time since the 2009-10 season. Newberry won the game 58-50.

Lepaio exploded for a game-high 17 points and 12 rebounds without a turnover as she broke Tonique Frasier’s all-time scoring record at Newberry College. Lepaio also passed Frasier for second all-time in career rebounds.

Newberry (20-10) never trailed in the second half as they consistently held off furious attempts by Lenoir-Rhyne (12-15) to even the score. The Bears led for 10:25 of the first half and got within two points on three occasions early in the second half but would never make it back on top.

Lenoir-Rhyne’s final threat was extinguished after an 8-0 run by Newberry. The Wolves were up 40-37 with 9:49 left when the run started. The tide began to shift after Emily Perry (Nambour, Qld, Australia) made a layup then went full swing as she buried a 3-pointer from the left side of the key to make it 45-37 with 8:15 remaining in the half. The run was capped by a Nicola Handreck (Heywood, Vic, Australia) layup.

As a team, the Wolves posted three players in double figures as Jaya Schultz (Santa Clarita, Calif.) and Perry both scored 10 points in the victory. Newberry is now 11-2 on the season when three players score in double figures. Sean Page got his fourth 20-win season during his tenure as Newberry's head coach.

The Wolves went for 22-for-55 for 40-percent from the floor for the game. Newberry went 4-for-15 from 3-point range (26.7-percent). Lenoir-Rhyne went 19-for-54 (35.2-percent) for the game and 2-for-12 (16.7-percent) from three. The free throws were a push with both teams going 10-for-13 at the line.

The Bears were forced to lean heavily on their starters as Newberry outscored their bench 17-0. Jenni Gust, Brooke Robinson and Jazmine Charles scored 37 of Lenoir-Rhyne’s 50 points on the game. The Wolves had eight players in the score column and seven of them had four points or more.

The Bears fouled Handreck twice in the final minute and she knocked down the final four free throws to reach the final margin.

The Wolves, playing the second game of the day, started slowly offensively and found themselves in an early 15-8 hole with 11:52 left in the first half. Newberry would then go on a 7-0 run to take a two point lead and ultimately outscored Lenoir-Rhyne 21-12 down the stretch. The teams went into halftime with a 29-27 lead.

The Wolves will face No. 1 seed Anderson tomorrow at 1 p.m. at Timmons Arena in Greenville. Newberry lost both games to the Trojans this season.