NEWBERRY – The Newberry women's basketball team dropped their final game of the regular season in a hard-fought matchup against Carson-Newman by a final score of 63-61 on Saturday afternoon at Eleazer Arena.

Newberry honored seniors Shelby Britten, Georgia Elliott-King, Regan McCarty, Courtney Lyons, and Meg Essex as all five started the game for the Wolves.

Elliott-King scored the first points for the Wolves, hitting two free throws after getting fouled on a nice cut to the hoop. The Wolves held a one-point lead heading into the second quarter where they started to wreak havoc on the Eagles.

Lyons started a 13-0 run for the Wolves with a 3-pointer. Kelsey McDermott added a layup forcing the Eagles to use a timeout. Newberry didn't stop the barrage following the timeout as McCarty and Britten nailed back-to-back threes forcing the Eagles to regroup as they used another timeout. Brandi Hall would cap off the run with a jumper on hard fought possession.

Newberry would close out the half with another 3-pointer from Britten and made basket from McCarty to put the Eagles at their largest halftime deficit of the season at 36-22. Newberry's defense also forced Carson-Newman to their lowest scoring quarter of the season as the Eagles only managed to score nine points.

After holding a double-digit led halfway through the third quarter, the Eagles would end the final five minutes on a 14-0 run to take a 44-43 lead. Carson-Newman would extend their lead to eight in the opening minutes of the final quarter, but the Wolves came charging back to stay in the game.

With nearly a minute to go, Carson-Newman maintained a five-point lead on the Wolves. Newberry started to foul the Eagles to send them to the line. Fortunately for the Wolves, Carson-Newman couldn't convert a pair of free throws as McDermott hit a 3-pointer, cutting the lead to two. Carson-Newman failed to make both free throws after getting fouled again, turning the possession over to the Wolves with under 10 seconds in the game.

The Wolves found McDermott open for a 3-pointer that hit off the front of the iron. Britten grabbed the offensive board and threw it back up where the ball just barely missed going through the net.

All five seniors scored in the game for Newberry. Elliott-King would finish with two points and one board and Lyons finished with eight, making two 3-pointers, and had two rebounds, two assists and a pair of steals.

McCarty finished with a near double-double of eight points and 10 boards. The Brisbane, Australia native also had two assists, two steals, and a block.

Britten continued her impressive play as she finished with 14 points on 4-of-6 shooting from deep. The reigning SAC Player of the Week also had six boards and seven assists.

Essex led the team in scoring in the game with 15 points on 6-of-11 shooting from the field while nabbing five boards.
 
POSTGAME NOTES:

• Newberry finished the regular season fifth in the SAC
• Shelby Britten has surpassed 200 career 3-pointers
  • Britten has made two or more 3-pointers in 10 straight games
• Meg Essex recorded her 800th career rebound

 
UP NEXT:
Newberry will travel to play Lenoir-Rhyne in the first round of the SAC Championships on Wednesday, March 6^th. Time for the game has yet to be determined.