NEWBERRY — The lady Bulldogs of Newberry(5-6) dropped their second straight game in the new year after falling 59-37 to Fairfield Central at home on Friday evening.
Newberry entered the game in hopes to bounce back after suffering a bad loss to Clinton at home on Wednesday, Jan.3rd. Things got off to a rocky start for the lady Bulldogs as they found themselves down 15-4 at the end of the first quarter.
The second quarter wasn’t much better for the home team and they trailed 27-15 at halftime. Newberry struggled with turnovers and creating easy looks for themselves on offense for majority of the game. Those same problems continued in the second half.
The lady Griffins led 41-27 going at the end of the third quarter. They put away the home team once and for all in the final period by getting their biggest lead of the game. The visitors led by as many as 20 plus points in the fourth quarter and ran away with the game.
This was the sixth time this season that Newberry have lost a game by 20 or more points. Despite the struggles on offense, Daizee Williams scored a team high of 17 points for the lady Bulldogs. She did most of her damage late in the ballgame by scoring seven points in the final quarter.
“Daizee is an all-region from last year and we expect a whole lot more from her. In the first half and our last game, she didn’t really show up,” said lady Bulldogs head coach Melissa Mendenhall. “We’ve been on her about scoring. If she would slow down when attempting layups. Every time she gets the ball, she is full speed and she slows down then she would average a lot more. She is one of the stronger players so I know everyone is going to coming after her when we start region on next week.”
The backcourt duo of Jazzlyn McMillan and Jordyn Adams was too much for the home team. Adams scored 22 points and McMillan had 20 points to finish the game. The two players almost outscored Newberry by themselves.
“Right now we are trying to teach them the importance of playing defense and not just regular defense, but help side defense. Knowing where your girl is and where the ball is,” said Mendenhall. “So, that in a rotation you’ll know where to move. Our main focus is now trying to teach them help side, ball side and in denial. But, at the end of the game we played our bench more and that’s why it got bad at the end.”
The lady Bulldogs will be back in action on Jan.9 at home against region opponent Ninety Six. The game is set to tip-off at 6:00 p.m.
Reach Greg Hollis @ 803-768-3117 or on X @TheNBOnews