‘I look forward to next year’: Newberry Academy has bright future after tough quarterfinals loss

COLUMBIA, S.C. — The Eagles(14-9, 5-5 SCISA region 3-A) playoffs run ended on Tuesday evening as they fell 33-19 to Richard Winn Academy(17-4, 10 SCISA region 3-A).

Newberry Academy varsity boys’ basketball team hope to continue their magical run in SCISA state playoffs, but they had to get past a familiar foe. Richard Winn and Newberry Academy got together for the fourth time this season with the stakes even higher.

Newberry Academy won their last meeting on Feb. 8th in the region finals at a neutral site and they hope to do the same thing. Cardinal Newman High School gymnasium was packed and full of energy on Tuesday, Feb. 18th for this quarterfinals matchup.

It started out slow for both squads in the first quarter, but Richard Winn was able to make up some momentum about halfway through the first quarter to close it out on a 10-2 run. They led Newberry Academy 12-2 at the end of the first period.

The Eagles of Newberry Academy came out firing in the second quarter to get themselves back in the game. They went on a 5-0 run that forced their region rivals to call a timeout. Unfortunately, Newberry Academy’s hot shooting was short lived because they struggled for the remaining of the first half to score.

Richard Winn closed out the first half on a 7-0 run to go into halftime with a 19-7 lead.

The second half started out slow for both teams, but Richard Winn found a way to score some timely baskets to force Newberry Academy to call a timeout after facing their largest deficit of the game being down 21-9.

Newberry Academy then went on a 7-2 run, all by Caleb Wilbanks, over nearly a three minute stretch after the timeout to pull within six points, 23-16. They still trailed 25-16 going into the final period.

The tough shooting night for both teams continued in the fourth quarter, but it seems like Newberry Academy had it the worst between the two teams. They were held scoreless for nearly four minutes in the final period and that was the nail in the coffin for the hometown Eagles.

“Well we needed to make more shots, that was the game plan. It just wasn’t in the cards for us tonight. We did not shoot the ball well tonight at all. You got to give them some credit though because I thought they were a little bit more physical than we were,” said Eagles head coach Scott Gardner. “I thought we were a little out of sync but also played hard and pressed to get some turnovers. We kind of got back in the game at times, but we were pretty much anemic from the field shooting the basketball. You can’t shoot 20 percent in a playoffs game and think you are going to win.”

Despite the rough shooting night, Caleb Wilbanks scored a team-high seven points. Freshman guard Javon Conway came off the bench and provided a huge spark with six points and three steals. Also, keep in mind that Newberry Academy went on this late season run without starting point guard Gavin Rosemond, who they lost to a broken wrist on Jan. 24th against Richard Winn ironically.

“I thought losing Gavin had something to do with our offensive struggles having to move Thomas[Mclean] over to the point and he couldn’t score as much. He did a great job at the point, but that took away from his scoring. We will regroup. I have three seniors, Quinn, Jody Ray and Emory that we will miss but we have some guys coming up with valuable experience. I look forward to next year because I think we can get back to this level if the kids work hard this summer,” said Gardner.

Congratulations to Newberry Academy on an outstanding season and looking forward to seeing them in the 2025-26 season.