NEWBERRY — The boys’ basketball team of Newberry High School (6-3) garnered second place honors at the second annual Bennie Bennett Holiday Classic after a tough five point loss to champion Aiken High.
After seeing the tournament spread out between the Scott Gym and Batesburg-Leesville High during the first two days…all eight teams gathered together for the final day of the contest in Newberry.
Newberry and Aiken were tied at 14-all after the first quarter…while the Bulldogs went into the locker rooms holding on to a 32-29 advantage.
The Bulldogs went on a 21-to-18 point run in the third quarter to have the 53-47 lead heading into the final quarter.
The Green Hornets converted six field shots and seven free throws in the fourth quarter compared to Newberry’s three and one respectively.
Tyriq Goodman scored all 12 of his points in the last three quarters.
Nick Paul finished with 10 points, while all-tournament selectee Darius Stephens-York finished with eight points.
Another all-tournament selectee, Terrell Rogers, finished with seven points, as did Pat Paul, and Jaleel Gilliam.
Tyrese Cromer, Tramas Ruff, Kajuan Wise, and Zymere Epps each scored two points, while the Newberry scoring ended with the one point of Ahmad Willis and Zay Chalmers.
On the next day of the tournament, the 5A Clover Blue Eagles had a 14-to-five advantage on three-pointers over Newberry…which accounted for 52 of their 71 points.
Newberry, however, would score 50 of their points from inside-the-arc as they gave the hometown crowd a 73-71 victory to celebrate.
Trailing by three points after each of the first three quarters…Newberry had the potential to make it a two-possession lead with 16 seconds to go.
The two free-throws were no good as Clover called the time-out to set up the potential final shot…knowing that Newberry had three fouls to play with during this time also.
Newberry would foul Clover twice in the next 10 seconds, as Clover drove inside the arc trying to draw a foul on their final shot.
The Bulldogs did not foul though, as the missed basket fell into the hands of Pat Paul to preserve the victory.
Newberry scored 50 of its points inside the arc…while Clover scored 20 of theirs from the same area.
Four of Newberry’s nine scorers ended the night in double digits.
Nick Paul had a game-high 17 points…including garnering eight of those points in the second quarter alone.
Goodman finished with 11 points, while Rogers and Chalmers each had 10 points.
Pat Paul scored nine points, Stephens-York (six), Gilliam (five), Cromer (three), and the Newberry scoring ended with the two points of Willis.
The tournament started off in fine fashion for Newberry after trailing 4-0…they went on a 15-to-six point run to end the quarter as they won 80-45 over Columbia.
While Newberry’s strongest showing was in the fourth quarter by scoring 22 points…the Capitals were only able to see 12 points scored in both the second and fourth quarters of play.
Rogers scored eight of his 12 points in the third quarter, while Goodman scored all but four of his 12 points in the first half.
Meanwhile, Nick Paul scored 10 points, Willis and Ny Downing (eight apiece), Pat Paul (seven), Chalmers (six), Tramas Ruff (five), while the trio of Wise, Stephens-York and Kobe Hardy had four points apiece.
The rest of the tournament standings were Clover (third place), Batesburg-Leesville (fourth), Airport (fifth), Pelion (sixth), Mid-Carolina (seventh) and Columbia finished eighth in the tournament.