Greg Hollis | [email protected]
NEWBERRY — The Eagles were without some of their top six players due to injury and they struggled to get things on the offensive end. Newberry Academy(4-6, 3-1 SCISA 1A region III) fell 24-25 to Cambridge Academy at home on Friday, Jan. 16th.
The short-handed Eagles lack of depth showed in Friday’s contest against the Cougars. A lot of young and inexperienced were asked to fill the roles of sophomore guard Javon Conway and starting freshman point guard Gavin Rosemand. Newberry Academy was held nearly scoreless for majority of the first quarter.
The Cougars started the game on a 7-0 run led by senior big man Andrew Wiley. They were also strong on the defensive end and didn’t allow anything easy early on. The Eagles were held scoreless for the seven minutes and 30 seconds out of the eight minutes total that is played each quarter. Senior center Caleb Wilbanks drilled a three-pointer for Newberry Academy in the final 30 seconds of the first quarter.
The home team trailed 11-3 heading into the second quarter and it didn’t get much better in the second period. Newberry Academy scored only four points in the quarter and was on the wrong end of a 10-3 run at the start of the quarter.
The Eagles trailed 19-7 at halftime, but would turn things around in the second half. Wilbanks would come out and make his impact on the offensive end to get the Eagles’ offense going in the third quarter.
The senior big man would knock down a three-pointer and make a tough lay-up in traffic to start the third quarter. Newberry Academy would go on a 5-0 run to begin the half, and that cut the deficit down, 19-12.
It seem like the Eagles finally figured out a rhythm on offense, but it quickly cool down towards the end of the third quarter and the lead ballooned back up to double-digits. Newberry Academy trailed 25-15 going into the final quarter.
The fourth quarter went much like the first quarter and the Eagles couldn’t stop Wiley on the inside. They jumped out to 4-0 run and led 29-15 before Newberry Academy was forced to call a timeout. Wiley finished the contest with 16 points, 14 rebounds and two blocks.
Wilbanks had a team-high 12 points for the Eagles but it wasn’t enough. Newberry Academy found themselves trailing by double-digits for majority of the quarter and the Cougars put them to bed. The Eagles never led in this contest.
“We are missing three of our top six guys right now. One broke his collarbone, Gavin is out with a stress fracture and Javon recently had mouth surgery; his wisdom teeth were taken out. We are trying to adjust to guys that were playing out of minutes by bringing in guys who hasn’t played a lot of minutes. Like I told them in there [locker room after the game], somebody else is going to have to step up,” said Eagles head coach Scott Gardner.
He continued, “We didn’t shoot the ball very well tonight. We were 8-of-39 and that was kind of the game. We only turned it over five times and we created 14 turnovers. When we were down 12-14 and I think we cut it down to six. So, that mean we got a little fight in us but we are going to have to make shots. I think we played pretty good defense to stay in ball games, but again we are going to have to find a way to make shots and get to the line. We didn’t shoot that many free-throws either tonight. Last game we shot 33 and eight tonight. We need to be shooting 15-20 every night because that at least gives us an opportunity to score more points.”
Newberry Academy also fell 44-42 against Anderson Christian on Tuesday, Jan. 20th. They will be off for a few days and have a huge region showdown against Richard Winn Academy at home on Friday, Jan. 23rd. Tip-off is set for 7:30 p.m.
Reach Greg Hollis @ 803-768-3119 or on X @TheNBOnews