Wolves bench gives them a spark to hold off Coker at home

NEWBERRY — Newberry College men’s basketball team played the worst team in the South Atlantic Conference and barely escaped with a win. The Wolves(10-9,6-7 SAC) defeated Coker(1-18,0-13 SAC) by the score of 84-75 at home on Wednesday, Jan. 28th.

The Cobras entered Wednesday’s contest in last place in the South Atlantic Conference and were looking to get their first conference win of the season. They almost pulled off the upset behind a strong outing from Zundra Jackson. The Wolves needed a win to try to climb up the conference standings and were tasked to do that without starting point guard Drew Robinson.

Newberry had all the momentum to start the game and jumped out to an early lead. The home team held a 14-8 lead with about 14 minutes left in the first half and would hold onto to that lead until about 8:42 on the game clock in the first half. Coker bought their hard hats and lunch pales because they weren’t going down without a fight.

The Wolves starting big men struggled to get going for much of the first half but their guards picked them up. Starting point guard Makhi Rivers and backup guards Kayzzin McDowell and Shane Hawkins provided instant offense for the Wolves. Rivers was able to get into the lane against the Cobras and make plays for himself and his teammates.

McDowell and Hawkins hit big shots for the Wolves especially late in the shot clock on some possessions. The two schools went back-and-forth and were tied 42-42 at halftime.

Coker opened the second half on a 7-3 run to take a small 49-45 lead but that would not last long. The Wolves would make their run behind the play of Malakhi Stremlow and Drake Downs. The Wolves’ big men struggled some in the first half, but figured things out in the second half. Both players were able to get to the free throw line and the Wolves got to the line much more frequently in the second half as a team. They attempted 22 of their team’s total 29 free throws in the second half of the game.

Downs finished the game with 14 points and seven rebounds. His front court mate Stremlow had a double-double with 15 points and 10 rebounds.

Coker took led 60-55 at the 11:27 mark in the game, and Newberry 29-14 for the remainder of the half which started with a 14-0 run to give them the lead a comfortable lead, 67-60.

The home team would grow their lead by as much as 13 points, 75-62, at the 4:41 mark on the game clock and Coker could never bounce back. The Cobras would be held scoreless for nearly four minutes during the Wolves run and could never bounce back. Despite their second half shooting struggles, four players would finish the game scoring in double figures, including Jackson’s game-high 32 points.

The Wolves also had four players finish the game scoring in double figures. Rivers had a team-high 21 points and McDowell had 16 points off the bench. Newberry’s bench outscored Coker’s bench 29 to 13 in this game. Hawkins had six points and backup big man Brett Dent had seven points and five rebounds off the bench as well.

“Shane Hawkins stepped up for us today. He came in and hit a big three to get us going because we were kind of flat. He also did a tremendous job of guarding and what he did was flip that to hit some shots and get us going,” said Wolves men’s coach Marcus Kirkland.

Newberry College fell on the road to UVA Wise by the score of 79-61 on Friday, Jan. 30th. They will be off for a few days and then will hit the road again to face Anderson University on Wednesday, Feb. 4th before returning home for a back-to-back home games at Eleazer Arena.