Lenoir-Rhyne jumped out to a double-digit lead, and turned back a late Newberry rally enroute to a 69-57 win in South Atlantic Conference women's basketball play at Shuford Gymnasium on Saturday.
"I thought it was a very gritty, gritty game," said Lenoir-Rhyne head coach Todd Starkey.
Lenoir-Rhyne (15-6, 8-3 SAC) is 8-0 at home this season and has won 14 straight SAC regular-season home games. The last conference loss at home was Feb. 27, 2008 to Wingate (89-72) in the regular-season finale.
"It's huge for us to defend home court and remain undefeated at home," said Starkey.
More important, the win moves the Bears, the defending SAC champions, into a first-place tie with Newberry (15-6, 8-3) with five regular-season games remaining.
Lenoir-Rhyne faces Carson-Newman at home on Wednesday while Catawba travels to Newberry.
While the two teams have split the last four games, Newberry defeated the Bears 77-59 at Newberry in the first meeting this year Jan. 9 at Newberry.
"They did some things differently in terms of our defense and they were able to get some things offensively we weren't prepared for," Newberry head coach Sean Page said referring to the last meeting. "We just basically got outplayed, out coached, out worked and out hustled by a team that tonight was better than us. They were fired up, well prepared and it meant a lot for them. It should have meant a lot to us but it seemed like looking at our kids."
Lenoir-Rhyne had runs of 5-0, 15-0 and 17-6, but the pivotal stretch was the 15-0 outburst early in the second half to answer a 7-0 run by Newberry.
"I was really proud of the way we answered their (Newberry's) runs," said Starkey. "We didn't lose our composure and got some big baskets when we needed."
Leading by four at halftime, Lenoir-Rhyne opened the second half with back-to-back 3-pointers from Amber Holt and Brittany Mitch to open a 10-point lead (38-28) with 19:21 remaining.
Newberry responded with seven unanswered points to cut the margin to one (38-37) with 16:18 remaining on a jumper by Amy Browne.
The Bears answered with 15 unanswered points to take a 53-37 lead with 11:47 remaining in the game on a basket by Safrit.
Five players scored in that stretch, led by seniors Holt, Mitch, Safrit and junior LaCourtney Rann and freshman Percious Elkins.
Safrit and Rann scored four points apiece while Mitch added three and Holt and Elkins had two.
"When you get into games when it's possession-by-possession, it's experience that wins games for you and I thought our upperclassman played big down the stretch," said Starkey.
The Bears pushed their margin to 20 points with 9:37 remaining on a basket by Elkins and seemed to be in control.
Newberry made one last push with a 17-2 run to cut the margin to five (62-57) on two free throws by LeAnne Watson with 3:25 remaining.
Lenoir-Rhyne sealed the game with five unanswered points over the final 3:25 hitting 2-of-6 from the floor and 3-of-4 from the free-throw line.
The Bears held a 34-8 advantage in the paint and 7-0 in bench points while shooting 45.6 percent from the floor.
Defensively, Lenoir-Rhyne held Newberry to 32.1 percent from the floor and without a field goal over the final 5:18 of the game.
Holt led Lenoir-Rhyne with a game-high 21 points while Elkins added 13, Rann 11 and Mitch 10.
Lenoir-Rhyne was playing its third straight game without leading scorer Cameron Sealy (12.9 ppg) who is sidelined with an injured left ankle in practice.
Sealy's return is day-to-day.
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