ANDERSON — The Newberry College women’s basketball team dropped to No. 15 Anderson University 67-64, on Saturday afternoon.
With the loss, Newberry falls to 11-9 overall and 10-4 in the South Atlantic Conference while Anderson improves to 13-3 overall and 11-2 in the conference.
At the end of the second quarter, Anderson had a 37-31 lead. Samantha Creed led the team in points with 11 followed by Emily Perry with five. Kirsten Dunsmore led the team in rebounds with three.
Creed finished the game with 21 points, one block, one assist, one steal, and one rebound.Meg Essex scored 13 points, grabbed six boards and tallied two blocks.
As a team, the Wolves shot 76.9% from the line and 46.2% from the arch.
Anderson took a 12-0 lead before Newberry could get on the board. Creed went 1-for-1 at the line with 5:50 left before she hit a layup just nine seconds later.
Essex got on the board with a jumper in the paint at 5:09 to make the score 14-5. Perry was sent to the line at 3:09 where she made both free throws. The last three points Newberry scored for the quarter were foul shots. Shelby Britten hit two with 1:50 left and Jaya Schultz closed the quarter with one free throw with 33 seconds left. Going into the second quarter, Anderson was up 22-10 over Newberry.
Newberry was more offensive during the second quarter by scoring 21 points. Essex started the scoring off with a layup off a pass from Britten just 18 seconds in. Schultz made a layup at the 8:35 mark followed by a layup from Creed 25 seconds later.
Newberry didn’t score again until two minutes later when Creed made another layup. Creed was fouled going up for the layup and was sent to the line where she made the free throw. Samara Hill got on the board with 5:14 left until halftime with a jumper.
Newberry scored six points in the last minute of the quarter with Nicola Handreck draining a 3-pointer with 38 seconds left. Perry then drained a 3-pointer off a pass from Handreck with four seconds left.
Just like the second quarter, the Wolves scored 21 points in the third quarter. Nine seconds in Essex finished a pass from Handreck for a jumper to make the score 37-33. Handreck drained a 3-pointer at 8:16 before Essex hit a jumper with 7:06 left. Essex then made a layup at 6:24 to tie the game at 40-40.
After the media timeout at 4:57, Creed went 2-for-2 at the line to cut Anderson’s lead to 45-43. With 46 seconds left Handreck made a three-point play after being fouled while going up for a layup. The layup was good and so was her foul shot. Dunsmore closed the quarter for the Wolves with two free throws in the last eight seconds.
Perry started the scoring for Newberry at the 6:32 mark when she went 2-for-2 at the line. Essex made a jumper with 4:09 left in the game followed a 3-pointer made by Creed at 3:30. With less than two minutes left Creed was fouled and went 2-for-2 at the line. Creed finished the game for Newberry with a 3-pointer in the last 25 seconds.
The Wolves are back at home on Wednesday, February 3 when they host Wingate. Tip-off is set for 6 p.m in Eleazer Arena