Bulldogs lose a heartbreaker to Irmo at home

NEWBERRY — The Bulldogs varsity boys basketball team has been up and down since their hot start to the season, and they were looking to shake the rust off on Wednesday evening. Unfortunately, that didn’t happen and they loss a nail-bitter. Newberry(7-6, 0-0 region 4-AAA) fell 47-45 to Irmo(12-2, 0-0 region 4-AAAAA) on Wednesday, Jan. 7.

The Bulldogs and the Yellow Jackets met for the second time this season. The first matchup was Newberry’s very first game of the season on Dec. 2nd at Irmo and the Yellow Jackets won a close game, 59-52. Newberry was looking to avenge that loss, and started the game off very strong on the defensive end.

The first quarter was a struggle to score for both teams for majority of the quarter. They two teams were scoreless for the first three minutes at the start of the game. Then, both teams began to get easy shots in the paint using their big men. Senior center AJ Jeter scored eight of his 16 points in the opening quarter. The Yellow Jackets big man Oshon Browman also had himself a solid game. The junior finished with 14 points and scored six in the first quarter.

Newberry was able to jump out to a 11-4 lead, but Irmo closed the first quarter on a 7-0 run which included a huge make from three at the buzzer. The two teams were tied 11-11 at the end of the opening quarter.

The second quarter opened with the visiting Yellow Jackets getting their first lead of the game at 13-11. They began to create some distance for themselves on the scoreboard and built an eight point lead. Newberry wasn’t going away quietly and freshman guard Sincere Glymph provided a nice spark off the bench for the home team.

He was able to draw two quick fouls and knocked down three of his four free throw attempts. Senior guard Kenton Caldwell knocked down a huge three-pointer late in the quarter to cut their deficit down. Newberry trailed 23-21 going into halftime.

The Bulldogs struggled with turnovers in the third quarter and that allowed the Yellow Jackets to build their back up after halftime. Irmo opened the quarter on a 6-0 run and lead by as many as nine points, but the Bulldogs fought back.

Caldwell scored five of his 11 total points in the third quarter. Newberry closed the quarter on a 7-0 run and trailed 34-31 going into the fourth quarter.

The Bulldogs turned up their defensive intensity in the fourth quarter, and began to full court press their opponents. The two teams went back-and-forth in the final period. Newberry’s head coach Adonis Hill decided to slow the game down and began to foul Irmo with nearly two and half minutes left to play on the game clock. Well, his strategy worked and his team began to make a late run. Jason Dunbar had a quiet night, but hit a huge three-pointer late in the game to cut the deficit down to just two points, 42-40.

Then, freshman guard Nevaeh Willingham was able to hit a tough floater in the paint to cut the deficit down to just three points, 46-43 after the two teams split a pair of free-throw attempts.

The Bulldogs were then able to force a turnover on the inbound and Jeter made a tough hook shot in the paint over his defender. That trimmed the deficit some more and the home team only trailed by one point, 46-45. Irmo was able to break the full court trap and had an open lay-up before Jeter came out of no where to get a huge deflection. The Bulldogs jumped on the ball and had a chance to win it with 30 seconds left on the clock.

Newberry called a timeout to draw up a potential game winning play. Irmo didn’t give up anything easy and took away the Bulldogs’ first two options on the inbound play after the timeout. Dunbar was able to find a wide open Willingham after avoiding a turnover on the double team in the corner, but the freshman missed the wide open three-point attempt.

The Yellow Jackets were able to grab the rebound and made the one of two free throws to end the game.

“Well we had a play and of course we want our dude[Caldwell] to have the ball in his hands. They stopped that initially and we went to our second option, and it was there but we just couldn’t get it to go down. The kids fault hard and that’s all I could ask for,” said Hill.

Hill was also asked about the locker room picked up their freshman guard after missing a wide open attempt to give them a late lead.

“That’s a freshman and it was a shot he had take but guess what, he has three more years to take and make that shot,” Hill said.

Newberry loss again on Friday, Jan. 9, to Saluda on the road. The Bulldogs have dropped three of their last four games to start 2026 and will look to bounce back against Silver Bluff at home on Tuesday, Jan. 13.