HARTSVILLE, S.C. – In the team's second-to-last road contest of the 2022-23 season, the Newberry College women's basketball team (8-17, 4-11 South Atlantic Conference) fell to the Coker Cobras (9-14, 4-11 SAC) by a final score of 79-62.

The Wolves' leading scorer was senior guard Giulia Bongiorno (Rome, Italy) who tallied 11 points in 23 minutes played. Closely following Bongiorno in scoring was senior guard Holly Davies (Camberely, Surrey, England) and redshirt senior center Ericka Wiseley (Mt. Pleasant, S.C.) who each tallied 10 points. Fellow redshirt senior center Tyla Stolberg (Brisbane, Queensland, Australia) led the team in rebounding with seven followed by Wiseley with six.

The Cobras led the game 5-0 when Wiseley sank the first basket of the game for the Wolves on a layup just over two minutes into the game. Wiseley tallied another two layups as junior guard Faith Putz added her own layup, giving the Wolves eight points and more importantly cutting the lead to just one point with five minutes to play in the first quarter. The team's traded two-point shots over the next minute as the game remained close. But the Wolves offensive struggles continued as they made just one basket in the final four minutes. The Wolves held the Cobras to just eight points over those same four minutes to keep the game within reach. The Wolves missed six shots over the final four minutes of the quarter and gave up four turnovers. But the defensive success of the Wolves held early and the second quarter started with the Wolves down a manageable 19-12.

The Wolves and Cobras played as evenly matched a second quarter as they could, both adding 11 points to their totals by quarter's end. The Wolves opened with the first five points of the quarter with junior guard Payton Cronen (Louisville, Ky.) and Bongiorno each sank a two-point shot and the Wolves added a layup, cutting the lead to two points in the first minute-and-a-half of the second quarter. The Cobras did not add to their total until three-and-a-half minutes into the quarter as the Wolves forced the Cobras to miss six shots before the first Coker layup was made in the quarter. The Cobras then went on a run to grow the lead back to seven before Davies cut it back to five points with 4:33 remaining in the first half. The Wolves added just four more points the rest of the way in the first half. Three of those points came from junior forward Mercer Roberts (Myrtle Beach, S.C.) who sank a three pointer with three minutes to play in the half. After all was said and done in the first half, the Cobras' lead stood exactly where it did at the end of the first quarter, seven points with the halftime score sitting at 30-23.

The Wolves had their most successful quarter of the night to that point in the third quarter, tallying 15 points. However, the Wolves defense began to bend as they allowed the Cobras to almost double Newberry's offensive output in the quarter with 29 points. The Cobras str jetched their lead to 15 points after the first five minutes of the quarter as the Wolves had madeust two field goals and two free throws. Turnovers began to catch up to the Wolves as they were unable to find a shooting opportunity for almost two minutes as the Cobras' lead hovered around 20 points. Seven of the Wolves' 15 points in the quarter came from the charity stripe as they went 7-for-8 from the line. But with Coker pushing the pace early and often in the third quarter, the Wolves trailed by 21 points, 59-38 with ten minutes to play.

The Wolves managed to outscore the Cobras in the fourth quarter, but only by four points, not enough to cut into the deficit acquired in the first three quarters of play. Newberry managed a 10-0 run between 3:40 remaining in the game and 2:27 remaining in the game, but that only managed to cut the lead to 15 points at the time and Coker outscored the Wolves by two points the rest of the way to give the Wolves a 79-62 defeat.

The Wolves wrap up their road slate this season on Saturday, Feb. 18 as they head to Greeneville, Tenn. for a matchup with the Tusculum Pioneers. Tipoff is scheduled for 2 P.M.