NEWBERRY, S.C. – After battling from 16 points down and making a tremendous second-half comeback, the Newberry College men's basketball team ultimately fell by one point, 72-71, to UVA Wise on Wednesday night in Eleazer Arena.

The home crowd was out in full force to cheer on their Wolves – and their presence was certainly felt all night long.

Leading Newberry (19-10, 12-6 South Atlantic Conference) in scoring was senior TJ Brown (Columbia, S.C.) with 17. Fellow senior QuanDaveon McCollum (Clio, S.C.) was close behind with 16 to go along with 11 rebounds for his 12th double-double of the season. Andrew Robinson (Lexington, S.C.) hit 4 of 6 3-pointers to finish with 12 points.

UVA Wise (18-11, 9-9 SAC) came out of the gates with a flurry of 3-pointers, making three of them in the game's first four minutes to take a 15-3 advantage at the first media timeout. The Wolves battled back out of that timeout, making three 3s of their own to cut the Cavalier lead to 18-12 around the 11-minute mark of the first half.

The Cavs stretched their lead to 30-18 after two more 3s to regain a double-digit advantage with six minutes remaining in the half. The teams played about even from there, as UVA Wise took a 38-25 edge into halftime.

Newberry began its second-half response with a 9-2 run that included four points from Malakhi Stremlow (Traverse City, Mich.) to take a bite out of the Cavs' lead, making it 40-34 just three minutes into the second half. UVA Wise followed suit with a pair of 3s to push its lead back to 10 at 48-38 with under 15 minutes left.

After Robinson nailed one of his four 3-pointers, he stole a pass and found McCollum for an easy layup to cut the deficit to five in a flash with 14 minutes to play. Soon after, however, the Cavs built their lead back to 57-47 after Bradley Dean hit one of his five 3s on the night midway through the half.

Out of the ensuing media timeout, Newberry utilized its jolt of energy to the tune of a 7-1 run – with thanks to seniors Brown and McCollum – to trim the margin to 58-54 with under nine minutes to go. Malik Joseph's (Eleuthera, Bahamas) 3-pointer with six minutes on the clock brought the Wolves within two, and McCollum put home a layup to even the score at 64 a minute later to tie the game for the first time since it was 0-0.

Robinson hit a clutch 3-pointer to tie the game once more at 69 with two minutes left, and after UVA Wise missed a 3-point attempt of its own, the Wolves called timeout with 1:03 remaining. Directly off the inbound feed from Robinson, Brown made a layup to give Newberry its first lead of the night, 71-69.

Down to their final possession, the Cavs looked for Dean – who finished with 28 points – who knocked down the game-winning 3 with only nine ticks left. The Wolves were then unable to score on their final possession.

Newberry made 29 of 62 shots on the night for a 46.8% shooting mark, including 11-of-23 shooting from 3-point land. They also pulled down 28 rebounds – 13 offensive – for 18 second-chance points.

The Wolves will hold out hope for an at-large bid to the NCAA Division II Tournament. The selection show is this coming Sunday, March 5.