HARTSVILLE- The Newberry College women’s basketball team improved to 7-2 in the South Atlantic Conference after beating Coker College 86-76, on Wednesday night.

The Wolves got on the board first with a layup from Meg Essex 20 seconds into the game. Essex hit another layup at 7:52 followed by a jump shot at 6:59 with the assist going to Nicola Handreck.

Handreck got on the board with 6:13 left in the first quarter with two free throws. Hannah Lepaio gave Newberry a five point lead (16-11) with 1:49 left with a layup.

Colleen Leung scored first for Newberry in the second quarter with a jumper 27 seconds in. Leung made another jumper one minute later followed by a layup from Kirsten Dunsmore.

At the 6:52 mark Essex made a jumper and 30 seconds later hit another one. Emily Perry gave a Newberry a three point lead with a jumper with 5:18 left until half. Samara Hill drained a 3-pointer of the game at the 4:13 mark with the assist going to Perry. Samantha Creed finished the quarter for Newberry with a 3-pointer with 46 seconds left.

At the half, Newberry had a 37-30 lead over Coker. Essex led the team in points with 12 while Handreck led the team in rebounds with five.

Essex scored a layup at 9:40 before she hit a jumper at the 8:56 mark of the third quarter. Lepaio pushed Newberry’s lead to 52-41 with a layup at the 2:39 mark off a pass from Leung.

In the last 90 seconds of the third quarter Newberry scored seven points. Perry started it  by hitting two free throws at the 1:31 mark. With 24 seconds left Hill scored a layup and   Handreck ended the third quarter with a 3-pointer for a 60-48 lead.

Newberry didn’t scored until Dunsmore made a layup 1:15 into the final quarter. Creed hit another 3-pointer at the 7:38 mark for a 65-54 lead. Creed scored four points in less than a minute (5:21-4:45) with a 3-pointer and one free throw.

In the last minute of the game the Wolves scored seven points, all of them off of free throws. Handreck went 2-for-2 from the line before Creed went 2-for-2. Handreck went 2-for-2 again with 25 seconds left and Creed ended the game with one free throw with 12 seconds left.

For the game, Essex finished with 22 points, six assists and two blocks. Creed scored 21 points, dished one assist and grabbed two boards. Handreck scored 19 points and grabbed 10 rebounds. Handreck also had five assists, two steals, and one block.

The Wolves are back at home on Saturday, January 16 against Brevard at 2 p.m.