NEWBERRY, S.C. — Newberry College held Tusculum University without a field goal in overtime as the Wolves came away with a 75-71 victory over the Pioneers in South Atlantic Conference women’s basketball Saturday afternoon at Eleazer Arena.
Jada Brown finished with 25 points and 15 rebounds and Rickell Brown scored five of her 24 points in overtime for the Wolves (9-3, 3-3 SAC), who turned 23 offensive rebounds into 20 second-chance points. Marykate Kent added 12 points for Newberry, which shot 35.5 percent (27-for-76) from the field as a team.
Abbi Douglas finished with a season-high 25 points for the Pioneers (1-11, 1-5 SAC) while Ema Nagyova canned five three-pointers and ended with 16 points in 39 minutes. Angela Gomez had nine points and six assists in 40 minutes and Martina Garofalo had eight points, five rebounds and six assists while playing all 45 minutes in the contest.
Douglas shot 8-for-17 from the field (2-for-5 on three-pointers) and 7-for-8 at the foul line to surpass her previous season high of 23 points set against Carson-Newman on Dec. 10. Douglas added eight rebounds, three assists and a season-best five steals in 36 minutes for the Pioneers.
Tusculum trailed 42-33 at halftime but outscored Newberry 20-9 in the third quarter to take a 53-51 lead. Newberry went up 66-60 on a layup by Jada Brown with 2:23 left, but baskets from Dora Van Rijs and Gomez cut the margin to 67-64 with 1:08 remaining in regulation. After a defensive stop by the Pioneers, Tusculum got a foul shot from Douglas to move within 67-65 with 32 seconds remaining.
Newberry missed two free throws with 29.3 seconds left, allowing the Pioneers to tie the game on a jumper in the paint by Garofalo with 16.1 seconds to go in regulation. Newberry missed a shot with 4.2 seconds to go, but Tusculum was unable to get a final shot away before overtime.
A basket from Jada Brown gave Newberry a 69-67 lead on the first possession of overtime, but two free throws from Douglas tied the score at 69-69 with 4:27 remaining. Rickell Brown would connect on baskets with 4:07 left and 2:21 to play to push the Wolves ahead 73-69. Two free throws from Garofalo cut the Newberry lead to 73-61 with 2:12 to go, but Tusculum missed three potential tying or go-ahead shots and the Wolves made two foul shots in the final 20 seconds.
Neither team led by more than three points in the opening quarter, with Newberry taking a 19-16 advantage following a layup by Daria Clet with four seconds left in the period. In the second quarter, the Pioneers tied the game at 22-22 on a layup by Douglas with 7:41 left, but the Wolves scored 11 straight to go up 33-22 on a Rickell Brown basket with 5:11 to go in the half. The lead would reach as many as 15 points at 40-25 before Tusculum pulled within nine at the half.
Douglas led the Pioneers with 12 points and seven rebounds in the first half, as the Pioneers shot 44.8 percent (13-for-29) in the half as a team. Jada Brown led the Wolves with 13 points and seven rebounds, with 10 points from Rickell Brown as Newberry shot 14-for-35 (40 percent) in the half and 6-for-13 on three-pointers.
Rickell Brown scored the first nine points of the third quarter for the Wolves, including a three-pointer which gave Newberry a 51-42 lead with 6:06 left in the period. From there, it was all Tusculum as three-pointers from Gomez and Nagyova cut the deficit to 51-48 with 4:57 left, then Douglas and Aisha Patel added layups around a free throw from Julia Szwichtenberg. Tusculum ended the quarter on an 11-0 run to go up 53-51 as Newberry missed its final eight shots of the period.
The Pioneers went up 55-51 on two free throws from Douglas with 9:35 left in the fourth quarter, but the Wolves would score nine straight to take a 60-55 lead on a basket from Jada Brown with 6:18 to go.
Van Rijs matched Douglas with eight rebounds for the Pioneers, but fouled out late in the overtime period. The six assists from Garofalo were a season high, while the six assists from Gomez were just off her season high of eight set on Wednesday at Young Harris.
Tusculum finished the game shooting 43.9 percent (25-for-57) from the field and 8-for-22 on three-pointers (36.4 percent). The Pioneers were 13-for-18 at the foul line while the Wolves were 13-for-20 at the stripe in the game. Tusculum had 16 turnovers which led to 16 points for Newberry, while the Wolves turned the ball over nine times.
The Pioneers will play the fifth of seven straight road games on Wednesday, Jan. 7 at Lincoln Memorial, beginning at 5:30 p.m. The Railsplitters return from the winter break with a 10-1 record (5-1 SAC) and five straight victories, and a 6-0 record at Tex Turner Arena.
