Newberry College falls to Anderson in home finale

NEWBERRY — Newberry College women’s basketball team attempted to pull an upset on Senior Night against one of the top teams in the South Atlantic Conference. Unfortunately, the Wolves fell short behind a great effort. Newberry College(6-21, 5-18 SAC) 62-50 against Anderson(20-9, 16-7 SAC) in their home finale on Wednesday, Feb. 27th.

Eleazer Arena was rocking on Wednesday evening with the student section filled to capacity as they hope to cheer the Wolves on for a possible upset. The first quarter was a struggle for the home team after going 3-for-19(16%) from the field. They trailed 20-9 at the end of the first period.

The Wolves got a huge lift from the student section and they stormed back in the second quarter. They went on a 10-6 run to start the quarter that was fueled by the starters. Newberry outscored the Trojans 19-12 in the quarter and held them to just 28% shooting from the field in the second period. The Wolves also knocked down a half-court attempt right before the buzzer to shift the momentum as they went into the half.

Newberry still trailed 32-28 at halftime. The momentum built from the second quarter didn’t transfer to the second half. The Wolves came out flat and had a hard time buying a basket.

The home team was held to just five points in the half and were outscored 16-1 to began the quarter and was held scoreless for nearly four minutes. The visiting Trojans got their biggest lead of the game when they held a 19-point lead at the end of the quarter.

Newberry had a tall order to overcome a 52-33 deficit going into the fourth quarter. They made a good push in the final period, but the deficit was too much to overcome. They did hold the Trojans to just 10 points and 33 percent shooting from the field.

“Anderson is a championship caliber team and we knew they were energy was going to come out at a high level. So we talked about matching their energy, but they have All-American players on their roster, let’s be honest! But I applaud our energy and effort. We played phenomenal for the first two quarters.,” said Wolves’ head coach Johnette Walker.

She continued, “We forced one of the top teams in the league to 24 turnovers. Man, we were right there. We knew coming out in the third quarter that we would have to match their energy. They got hot, hit like three or four three’s. We were hoping they stayed cold, which they didn’t, but we knew they weren’t. We just knew we had to match and we didn’t. Our effort, our energy and our hustle still made me applaud our girls tonight.”

Jess Thomkins finished the game with a double-double, 13 points and 10 rebounds. Caylin Moment played good minutes off the bench and had eight points along with four rebounds off the bench.

Walker also raved about the home crowd after the game.

“The community here in Newberry is phenomenal. They support us even when its 10 people in the stands, we still here them. Tonight crowd was phenomenal and I need more of that for next season. The community here has been supportive from day one,” said Walker.

The Wolves will play their final game of the season this Saturday, March 1st at 2:00 p.m. against Lenoir-Rhyne on the road.