Women’s Basketball Loses at Newberry

NEWBERRY, S.C. - Mars Hill lost on the road at Newberry on Saturday afternoon, 72-61. The Lions fell to 3-7 overall and 0-2 in the SAC. Newberry improved to 10-2 on the season and 2-0 in the conference. Armeka Booker scored 25 points in the loss, one point shy of her career high.

Following Booker's 25-point, eight rebound performance was Ansley Ricker who came off the bench to add 15 points. Cadence Wilmoth scored eight points and pulled down nine boards.

As the game tipped off, it seemed to be smooth sailing for the Wolves as Newberry jumped out to an early 16-3 lead over the Lions. Despite trailing by 13 points, the visiting Lions slowly began to chip away at the Wolves lead. First a pair of made free throws by Armeka Booker, cut the lead to 11 and soon enough the Lions found themselves within two points at 23-21 with less than nine minutes remaining in the opening half.

A layup by Samantha Creed gave the Wolves a temporary cushion, before the Lions surged out to take a lead that would reach as many as seven points. The Wolves answered the Lions lead with five straight points, including a buzzer-beater 3-pointer off the glass from beyond the midcourt line by Kendra Brown, which saw the Wolves head to the locker room trailing by two points.

Trailing 37-35 to the Lions, the Wolves headed to the locker room down for the first time all season at halftime.

Starting the second half, Haylee Lepaio hit a jumper in the paint to tie the game at 37-all. Newberry and Mars Hill traded baskets, as the Wolves took a short lead before seeing the game tied 39-39 with 16:48 on the clock. The Wolves ticked off five straight points, to take a five-point lead, until the Lions offense took advantage of occasional Newberry mistakes to take a two-point lead with 8:09 on the clock.

Up 53-51, the Lions not only saw their lead slip away, but never regained control of the game.

Newberry slowly stretched its lead to 13 points with a 72-59 advantage with less than a minute on the clock. A pair of late free throws by Mars Hill cut the final score to 72-61.

Creed led the Wolves offense with 22 points, while adding three assists and four steals to her stat line. Lepaio tallied 21 points, seven rebounds and two blocked shots. Brown had one of the best games of her Newberry career with 17 points, five assists, three steals and three rebounds. Brown's five assists are a career high.