NEWBERRY – After erasing a 12-point second-half deficit against the visiting Limestone Saints, the Newberry College men's basketball team came up just short of victory in Eleazer Arena Wednesday night, falling 67-63 in a South Atlantic Conference matchup.

Drake Downs followed up his career-best 21-point effort on Saturday with 17 more points tonight to lead the Wolves. Downs shot 6 of 11 from the floor and made five free throws.

Devario Sheppard's 13 points were the second most for Newberry (1-6, 0-3 South Atlantic Conference) on the game, which Sheppard paired with six rebounds.

Both Jalen Johnson and Malik Joseph grabbed eight boards for the Scarlet and Gray, as they outrebounded the Saints by a wide margin, 40-26.

The first half saw six lead changes and four ties, with neither team gaining more than a six-point advantage in the opening 20 minutes. In that first half, Downs had 11 of the Wolves' 29 points as Newberry trailed Limestone (4-4, 3-0 South Atlantic Conference) by two at the break.

Limestone rattled off the first 10 points of the second half to take the aforementioned 12-point lead, 41-29, with 16:24 left in the game.

Newberry began chipping away at the lead, first going on a 5-2 run over the next 1:23 to cut the deficit to nine before a media timeout with 15:01 left. The Wolves then scored six of the next eight points out of the timeout to get within five after a Booker Cusaac layup made it 45-40.

A Caleb Byrd jumper and a ferocious slam from Sheppard pulled the Wolves within one before Sheppard pulled up at the elbow and sank a shot to give the Wolves a 46-45 edge with just over 10 minutes to play.

Much akin to the first half, these SAC foes proceeded to trade buckets over the next eight minutes with the score tied on six occasions including at 63-all at the 2:03 mark. The Saints soon went ahead by a pair thanks to a jumper with 1:37 to play. Limestone got to the free-throw line a minute later but missed the front end of a 1-and-1 and Caleb Byrd secured the rebound with 26 seconds remaining as the Wolves called a timeout to set up a play.

On the ensuing possession, James Lovorn drove down the baseline and kicked it back to Downs who narrowly missed the game-tying layup with six seconds on the clock. The Saints grabbed the rebound and got fouled, making a pair of free throws for the final score.

For the game, Newberry outscored the visitors 42-28 in the paint and utilized 15 offensive rebounds to score 17 second-chance points. The Wolves' bench also outpaced Limestone's 25-11.

Newberry has a quick turnaround as they will face Tusculum in Eleazer Arena this Saturday (Dec. 16) at 4 p.m.