NEWBERRY, S.C. - Eleazer Arena continues to be a tough place to play for Lenoir-Rhyne as the Bears dropped a 71-66 decision to Newberry on Wednesday night. LR is just 11-19 in the NCAA era at Newberry and just 1-15 in the last 16 games at Eleazer.
GAME INFORMATION:
Final: Newberry 71, Lenoir-Rhyne 66
Records: Lenoir-Rhyne (9-6, 4-3 SAC), Newberry (3-9, 2-5 SAC)
Location: Newberry, S.C. | Eleazer Arena
STATS OF THE FIRST HALF:
- The Bears played an excellent first half and jumped out to a 32-22 advantage after the first 20 minutes.
- LR held Newberry to 10-of-31 shooting (32.2 percent) from the field and 2-of-12 (16.7 percent) from long range.
- A three-pointer by Devario Sheppard gave Newberry an 18-15 lead with 8:12 left in the half. However, Newberry would manage just four more points in the last 8+ minutes of the half.
- A jumper from Cris Paez made it 18-17 and ignited a 15-4 run for LR to close out the first half. Jaheim Taylor's layup with 16 seconds left in the half ended the first half scoring for LR. Newberry would answer with a bucket with four seconds left which ended a 4:13 scoreless drought.
STATS OF THE SECOND HALF:
- A three-point play by Tim Steele just 82 seconds into the second half pushed the Bears lead to 37-24, their largest of the game.
- Newberry would answer with a 9-0 spurt culminating in a jumper from James Lovorn.
- LR would punch back and Nas Tyson's jump shot at the 9:43 mark put the Bears up 50-41 and forced a Newberry timeout.
- Coming out of the TO, Newberry scored eight straight to draw within one. They would draw even on three different occassions but LR had the response each time.
- At the 3:14 mark, Newberry's Jalen Johnson gave the Wolves a 64-62 lead. It was Newberry's first lead since 18-17 with 7:46 left in the first half.
- Tay Smith hit a pair of free throws to draw even but Lovorn's triple started a 7-0 run for Newberry to make it 71-64 with just over a minute to play.
- Newberry shot a scorching 70 percent in the second half, connecting on 21-of-30 shots. Lovorn had 13 in the second half and went 5-of-6.
- Taylor led LR with 11 second half points and hit 4-of-5 from the field.
- LR shot 50 percent in the second half but turned the ball over eight times.
BEYOND THE BOX SCORE:
- Of the past 15 road loss at Newberry, eight have been by five points or fewer.
- This was the 2,601st all-time game for Lenoir-Rhyne Men's Basketball.
- Taylor came off the bench to lead the team with 21 points, a season high for him.
- Taylor has averaged just over 17 points per game over his last three contests.
- Newberry played just seven players and Johnson and Caleb Byrd each played 40 minutes.
UP NEXT: The Bears will return home to host Carson-Newman on Saturday at 4 p.m.