NEWBERRY — The Newberry women’s basketball team falls to Tusculum 61-47 on Saturday afternoon in Eleazer Arena.
The game was tightly contested by both sides to start. Sydney Wilson of Tusculum got on the board with a jumper and 20 seconds later the Pioneers got a steal, went down the court to drain a three to put them up 5-0 early. Jumpers from juniors Kelsey Brett and Dragana Petkovska brought Newberry within one. The Pioneers then went on a 8-2 run for the next three minutes to extend their lead to 13-6. That did not stop the Wolves from fighting back. A three by junior Talia Roberts started an 8-0 run to close out the quarter to put the Wolves up 14-13.
Freshman Courtney Virgo kept the Wolves offense going with draining a three-pointer to start the second quarter and making the score 17-13. The scoring after that slowed down for a little bit as Newberry did not score another bucket until over four minutes later, when they made the score 19-13. After being shutout for nearly nine minutes of game time, which includes the final 3:31 left in the first, Tusculum scored their first basket of the quarter. Similar to how Newberry finished the first, the Pioneers finished out the half by going on a 6-0 run to tie the game 19-19.
Tusculum started the scoring in the third with Maddie Sutton making a couple of free throws. Almost three minutes of game time then went by before either side scored. Pioneers’ Brianna Dixon made three and layups by Sutton and Mia Long got the lead up to nine with the score being 28-19. With 4:39 left in the third quarter, senior Kelsey McDermott knocked down a pair of free throws, for Newberry’s first points since there was 3:52 left in the first half to make the score 28-21. The Pioneers outscored the Wolves 8-4 the rest of quarter to make it 36-25 heading into the fourth.
A made layup by Tusculums’ Long increased their lead to 13 with the score being 38-25. For the next 4:44 minutes after that made layup, the Wolves outscored the Pioneers 14-6. It all started with a made three by Roberts, who went on to score eight of those points, to get within five of the score 44-39. This was the closest Newberry got the rest of the game. The Pioneers went on a 5-0 run to essentially seal the game up. Newberry tried to come down the court and get a quick basket before playing defense to get back into striking distance of the score, but the shot were not dropping. Tusculum sunk nine of their next 11 free throws to ice the game away.