Cold-shooting Eagles fall at Newberry

NEWBERRY, S.C. -  The Newberry College Wolves got off to a hot start on the way to earning an 88-69 South Atlantic Conference win over Carson-Newman in Eleazer Arena on Saturday afternoon.

Newberry (8-5, 3-3 SAC) was paced by 21 points and nine rebounds from Dondray Walker (Fountain Inn, S.C.) and a 14-point, 11-rebound double-double from Chris Reynolds (Augusta, Ga.). Quayshun Hawkins (Columbia, S.C.) scored 15 points with eight rebounds and Savad Garner (Fountain Inn, S.C.) scored 14 points with six boards.

Carson-Newman (9-7, 2-4 SAC) followed a 24-point, 11-rebound double-double from Antoine Davis. Marcellous Perez' 12 points was the Eagles' only other double digit performance.

Walker scored on a jumper just six seconds into the game followed by a Davis three-pointer for Carson-Newman to give the Eagles an early lead. After the initial trey, the guests' shooting went cold, giving the Wolves a chance to take control of the game. With 14:23 left in the half, another Walker triple pushed Newberry's lead to double digits for the first time at 15-5.

Newberry continued to push with a steal and fastbreak layup by Brunes Charles (Naples, Fla.) gave the Wolves an 18-point advantage just 11 minutes into the game at 32-14. Newberry's first 20-point lead came on Walker's final three-pointer of the half with 2:11 left in the half, and the Wolves took a 48-29 lead into the halftime break.

By the half, three Wolves were already in double figures, led by Walker's 15 and Hawkins' 13 points, with each of them canning three three-pointers.

Newberry took its largest lead of the game at 58-36 with 16:27 to play on a steal and layup by Garner before the Eagles clawed their way back into the game. An 8-0 run in the middle of the half by Carson-Newman cut the Wolves' lead to 10 points at 65-55 with 10:16 to go, but was not able to cut the lead into single digits. The guests had a chance to make a charge only trailing 10 with 6:32 to go, but a 10-4 surge by Newberry over the next three and a half minutes put the game out of reach.

The Wolves held a 52-41 rebounding edge in the game, with a 30-18 advantage in the second half. Newberry also outshot the Eagles, making 43.1% (28-of-65) of its shots, with C-N making 33.8% (23-of-68) of its shots. The Eagles came into the game shooting nearly 36 percent from three-point range this season, but were limited to just 13.6% (3-of-22) from behind the arc, while Newberry shot 50% (10-of-20) from long range.

C-N returns to action Wednesday night against Mars Hill at 8 p.m. in Holt Fieldhouse.