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NEWBERRY — The Newberry Academy basketball teams continued region play Thursday night as they traveled to Aiken to face Mead Hall.

Both teams came home winners, as the Lady Eagles won 38–25 and the boys’ team won 68–22.

In the girls’ game, the Lady Eagles started off slow offensively and they found themselves down 8–2 at the end of the first period.

The cold shooting came to an end in the second period, with Andie Getz pacing the Lady Eagles with 6 points in the period. Newberry Academy took a hard fought 15–10 lead into the half.

In the second half, Emily Senn scored 13 points, helping the Lady Eagles increase the lead in each period. Senn finished the game as the high scorer with 16 points, followed by Getz and Kaitlyn Noble with 8 points each.

Other players to score included Rachel Franklin, Emma Lindsay, and Carman Franklin with two points each.

In the boys’ game, Newberry Academy raced to an early lead and buried the home team. Jacob Epting continued his hot shooting, scoring 11 of the teams’ 27 first period points.

Despite early substitutions, the Eagles continued to pull away and were up 45–7 at the half.

With most of the starters sitting in the second half, Newberry Academy continued to add to the lead, finishing with a convincing win.

Epting led all scorers with 17, followed by Jake Buzhardt and Dylan Skipper with nine points each. Justin Suber had eight points and CJ Connelly had six points on the night.

Other players to score included Ryan Smith, Sean Blanton and Luke Carraway with four points each, Frankie Alvarez with three points, and Tyler French and Josh Sawyer with two points each.

On Saturday, the Eagles faced Hammond School in Columbia. Hammond is a much larger school, playing in the 3A level of SCISA (Newberry Academy is a 1A school).

Newberry’s boys’ team held their own throughout the first half, trailing by a single point at the end of the first period and by seven at the half. The team played some of their best basketball of the year, with fantastic ball movement and decision-making.

Unfortunately, cold-shooting in the second-half doomed any upset prospects, and Hammond’s superior talent level took over as they cruised to an easy 59–29 win.

Newberry Academy is in action again this week against Covenant Christian on Tuesday and Wardlaw Academy on Friday. The games will be at Newberry Academy.