Newberry, S.C. ? The Newberry College Men?s Basketball Team (6-9, 1-3) picked up its first South Atlantic Conference victory of the season with a 74-69 victory over Lenoir-Rhyne University (3-11, 1-3) Saturday at Eleazer Arena.

Newberry?s Ryan Barnes (Oviedo, Fla.) led all scorers with 21 points as the Scarlet and Gray rallied from a pair of two 10-point, first-half deficits (23-13 and 25-15) to hand Lenoir-Rhyne its third consecutive defeat.

Junior forward D.J. Blackmon (Albemarle, N.C.) led L-R with 19 points while freshman guard Spenser Sydney (Lincolnton, N.C.) and senior guard Marcus Hodges added 13 and 12 points, respectively, as the Bears saw their eight-game winning streak against the Scarlet and Gray snapped.

Newberry closed the gap to 35-33 at halftime and then battled with L-R back and forth through most of the second half before back-to-back three-pointers by Barnes and Aaron Edwards (Duluth, Ga.) gave the Scarlet and Gray a 62-55 lead with 6:45 left.? L-R wasn?t able to get any closer than four points the rest of the way.

Newberry connected on 10-of-12 free throw attempts in the?final?5:09 to hold on for the win.

Ray Robinson (Jacksonville, Fla.) added 13 points for Newberry, who shot 58 percent (23-of-40) from the field and connected on 21-of-29 free throw attempts (72 percent).

Lenoir-Rhyne returns to Shuford Memorial Gymnasium to host Mars Hill on Wednesday at 8 p.m.