Newberry rallies past C-N behind hot second half shooting, 82-71

Newberry rallies past C-N behind hot second half shooting, 82-71

JEFFERSON CITY, Tenn. - The Newberry Wolves snapped a four-game losing streak thanks to hot shooting in the second half of an 82-71 South Atlantic Conference win over the Carson-Newman Eagles in Holt Fieldhouse on Saturday.

Newberry shot 53.3% (16-of-30) in the second half, including sinking 10-of-15 (66.7%) of its second half three-pointers to recover from a four-point halftime deficit.

Newberry moves to 14-10 overall and 8-8 in SAC play, while Carson-Newman is now 14-12 and 7-9 in the league. With two games remaining in the regular season, the Wolves are tied with Lenoir-Rhyne for fourth place. The top four seeds at the end of the regular season get a home game in the first round of the Food Lion SAC Tournament.

Dondray Walker (Fountain Inn, S.C.) led the Wolves a 22-point, 10-rebound double-double and also had three steals and two assists. In his first game back from injury, Quayshun Hawkins (Columbia, S.C.) had 17 points with six assists, three rebounds and three steals.

Matt Dixon (Elizabeth City, N.C.) had 12 points on three three-pointers and Savad Garner (Fountain Inn, S.C.) rounded out Newberry's double digit scorers with 11 points.

The Eagles built a 13-point first half lead as Kevin Leatherwood scored nine points off the bench and Corbin Jackson added seven first-half rebounds. C-N led 27-14 with just over eight minutes to play in the half.

With just under a minute left in the half, the Eagles led by nine, but Hawkins nailed a three-pointer and grabbed a steal. He missed an ensuing triple, but Aegir Steinarsson (Reykjavik, Iceland) made a putback to cut the margin to 35-31 at the break.

Hawkins led the Wolves with nine points at the break and the Wolves were only 3-of-17 from beyond the arc, all made by Hawkins.

In the first three minutes of the second half, the Eagles pushed their lead back out to nine points before Walker and Dixon took the game over for the Wolves. The duo combined for six consecutive made baskets, with four behind the three-point line. By the 13:15 mark, the Wolves at taken the lead at 50-49.

With just under seven minutes remaining, C-N's Corbin Jackson converted a three-point play to give the Eagles a 61-56 lead. The Wolves charged back with a three-point play by Garner and back-to-back three-pointers by Hawkins to regain the lead. With five minutes left, the game was tied at 65-all before the Wolves went on an 11-2 run with triples by Walker, two threes by Dixon and a Chris Reynolds (Augusta, Ga.) layup to claim the lead for good.

Walker and Dixon each went a perfect 4-for-4 from three-point range in the second half, as the guests out-scored the Eagles by 15 points to earn the win.

Ishmael Sanders led the Eagles with 18 points. C-N shot only 18 percent from three-point range in the second half, connecting on 2-of-11 attempts.

Carson-Newman hosts LMU on Wednesday night at 8 p.m.