Caldwell’s hot scoring helps Bulldogs defeat Fairfield Central

NEWBERRY —The Bulldogs varsity boys’ basketball team are hot to start the new year and now have won their second straight game at home behind the hot scoring of Kenton Caldwell. Newberry(7-9) defeated Fairfield Central(3-11) 61-43 on Friday night.

The Bulldogs jumped off to a 10-0 run to start the game, and that maybe due to the faster pace. Head coach Adonis Hill made a tweak to the starting lineup and chose to start Jemerius Shepard.

“Well I tell you, Shepard he’s an athlete! He brings so much energy and grit to our lineup that it’s hard to keep him out of the game. He brings it and it’s contagious. He is our motor and it worked. The others gravitate towards that,” said Hill.

Shepard, or ‘Shep’ as his teammates call him, had six points in the opening period to help fuel the Bulldogs hot start. Caldwell also spoke about the infectious energy his teammate brings.

“He’s just our motor. I don’t know how to explain, but if somebody is off and not going, he[Shepard] can come into the game to turn them up by just being out there. We feed off of his energy and it turns everybody up,” stated Caldwell.

The Griffins found a way to battle back. Newberry still led 17-14 at the end of the first quarter. The visitors continued to fight and were able to take a 22-19 lead, which was their first of the game.

Caldwell refuse to let the game slip away and he went on a 7-0 run by himself to give the Bulldogs the lead back. He scored 13 of his 17 total points in the first half. He scored 25 points in the previous game on Wednesday night to help lead the Bulldogs in a 71-56 win at home against Clinton.

“I was feeling good. Coming into the game I was already hyped up, then my teammates started hyping me up. Once we all got hyped up, it just bought way me energy then I already had. Then, I don’t know, I blacked out and felt good,” said Caldwell when speaking after the game about another stellar performance.

Newberry closed out the second quarter on a 7-0 run that ended with a long jumpshot by AJ Geter right before the buzzer. They held a 32-25 lead at halftime.

The home team kept their strong play going in the third quarter by extending their lead to double digits. The Bulldogs led by as many as 18 points in the third quarter and held a 45-31 lead going into the final period.

The defensive pressure was dialed up in the fourth quarter and it caused the away team to struggle on the offensive end. Newberry’s full court pressure was too much to handle and their lead continued to grow.

Both big men got going for the Bulldogs as well in the fourth quarter to help put the game away. Geter scored 10 of his 18 total points in the second half, including six points in the final quarter.

Jamel Howse Jr. came off the bench for the first time this season, but his energy didn’t change. He scored nine points total, including six in the fourth quarter, and had two huge dunks to get the Newberry home crowd out of their seats.

“Well you’ve seen us play before and a lot of times Howse gets early fouls because he has that football mentality. So I said, ‘hey let’s sit him down, watch the game, get him into a flow and then bring him on.’ That’s exactly what happened and it worked,” Hill said.

Newberry had three players finish the game with double-digit scoring totals. Now, they will open up region play at home on Tuesday, Jan.9 against Ninety Six. Tip-off is set for 7:30 p.m.