NEWBERRY, S.C. -- With her basket at the 8:02 mark of the first quarter, Blaikley Crooks became the 25th player in program history to surpass the 1,000 point mark. Crooks would score 24 points to lead the Bears to a 67-59 road win over Newberry on Wednesday night to extend their winning streak to four straight.
GAME INFORMATION:
Final: Lenoir-Rhyne 67, Newberry 59
Records: Lenoir-Rhyne (11-4, 6-1 SAC) , Newberry (4-11, 2-5 SAC)
Location: Newberry, S.C. | Eleazer Arena
STATS AND INFO:
- Crooks entered the game needing just three points to top 1,000 career points and scored the first four points of the game for LR.
- Crooks' teammate Emily Harman moved nine points shy of 1,300 career points. She will be just the 11th player to reach that mark in program history.
- The Bears snapped a four-game losing streak at Newberry.
- Prior to tonight, the home team had won 10 straight games in this series.
FIRST HALF:
- Crooks hit a pair of free throws to open the scoring and move to 999 career points and a driving layup crossed the 1,000-point mark.
- Newberry would grab the lead in the middle of the first quarter and go to the break with a 15-12 advantage. Jess Tomkins had six for the Wolves while Crooks answered with six for LR.
- The Bears went just 4-of-18 in the opening 10 minutes.
- Newberry maintained the lead for most of the second quarter, leading by as many as six, before a late LR surge.
- Down 29-26, LR went on an 8-0 run to grab a five point lead. Crooks would score with three seconds left in the half to make it 36-31.
SECOND HALF:
- The Bears would go up by as many as 11 in the third quarter but the Wolves wouldn't go away. Newberry cut the lead to 51-45 at the end of the third quarter.
- LR came out hot in the fourth quarter and a Mikeba Jones bucket in the paint put LR up 60-45 with 6:11.
- LR held a double-digit lead until the 1:59 mark but Newberry could get no closer than eight.
- Crooks had nine points in the fourth quarter as LR went 7-of-11 from the field to earn the win.
BEYOND THE BOX SCORE:
- Newberry shot just 38.9 percent from the field. This was the sixth time this season an opponent has shot below 40 percent against LR.
- The Wolves also went just 6-of-22 from deep. The 27.3 percent mark makes Newberry the 10th team to shoot less than 28 percent from three against the Bears.
- Crooks' 24 points are one shy of her season total of 25 against Lander on November 12.
- Crooks was a +19 while on the court tonight and Maleiya Hill was +17.
UP NEXT: Bears will welcome the Carson-Newman Eagles to the Shu on Saturday afternoon with a 2 p.m. contest.
