HICKORY, N.C. – Despite leading for 96.1% with a lead that grew to as many as 21 points, the Newberry College women's basketball team (6-14, 2-8 South Atlantic Conference) fell to divisional foe Lenoir Rhyne by a final score of 65-61.

Junior guard Dyani Burke (Columbia, S.C.) led the Wolves in scoring with 17 points. She also recorded eight rebounds in the loss. Junior guard Payton Cronen (Louisville, Ky.) was the team's second leading scorer with 11 points. Cronen tallied four assists against the Bears. One other Wolf, senior guard Holly Davies (Camberley, Surrey, England), put up double digit points against the Bears.

The Wolves got off to an early lead, starting four-for-four from the field over the first three-and-a-half minutes of the game to grow the lead to four points, 10-4. Cronen and Davies both sank three pointers for the Wolves en route to the early lead. The teams began to go back-and-forth trading baskets as the Wolves held on to a three-point lead halfway through the quarter. After a two-minute scoring drought from both teams, the Wolves went on to score the final seven points of the quarter over the final three minutes. Five of those points came from Burke as the Wolves entered the second quarter up 20-10.

The Wolves opened the second quarter with a six-point run over the first two-and-a-half minutes. Burke again led the way in scoring as she claimed four of those six points. The Wolves then proceeded to go the next three minutes without a basket, but the Wolves defense held the Bears to just three points over that span to keep the lead at 15 points with just under five minutes to play in the first half. The Wolves further grew the lead as over the next minutes they held Lenoir-Rhyne without a basket over that stretch. Burke, Davies and redshirt senior center Tyla Stolberg (Brisbane, Queensland, Australia) each netted a basket as the Wolves took an 18-point, 38-20, lead into the locker room.

Over the first three minutes of the third quarter, the Wolves further grew the lead to 20 points as they went three-for-four from the field, including one shot from beyond the arc from Cronen. The other two baskets came from redshirt senior center Ericka Wiseley (Mt. Pleasant, S.C.). Over the next three minutes the Wolves were perfect from beyond the arc with Burke and Cronen each sinking shots. The Bears kept pace with the Wolves during that stretch, putting up six points of their own. Led by senior guard Giulia Bongiorno's five points over the final four minutes, Newberry extended the lead to 19 points by the end of the third quarter, 55-36.

The fourth quarter did not go over as well as the previous three had for the Wolves. Over the first four minutes, the Wolves scored just one point on a free throw from Burke as the Bears put up 11 points of their own, cutting the 19-point lead at the start of the quarter to just nine points with six minutes remaining. The tale of the tape over that stretch for the Wolves was not missed shots, as they took just one, but four turnovers over the first four minutes of the quarter. The Wolves put up just three points over the next three and a half minutes, coming on a jump shot and free throw from Bongiorno, as the Bears cut the lead to eight points with three minutes remaining in the game. Over the next roughly two-and-a-half minutes, the Bears claimed their lead of the game by going on an 11-0 run up to just 16 seconds remaining in the game, when Davies ended the Wolves' streak of three missed field goals to cut the Bears' new lead to three. It was Newberry's final basket of the game as Lenoir-Rhyne added three more points to down the Wolves 65-61.

The Wolves continue their road trip as they're back on the court Wednesday, Feb. 1 as they take on in-state SAC opponent Anderson at 5:30 P.M.