ANDERSON, S.C. – Newberry sophomore Callan Low's rebound and put-back of teammate Marcus Ford's miss with two seconds on the clock lifted Newberry past Anderson, 69-67, in South Atlantic Conference men's basketball action, Wednesday night at the Abney Athletic Center.
Anderson (10-14, 7-13 SAC) suffered its third consecutive setback, while Newberry improved to 11-10 overall and 11-8 in league action with its second win in three outings.
INSIDE THE BOX SCORE
Forward Parker Dortch led all scorers with 25 points, including 17 in the second half. The Columbus, N.J., native was 9-for-13 from the field, while also pulling down six rebounds and handing out two assists. Guard Crosby James II tossed in 20 points on 6-of-11 shooting accuracy and dished out a pair of assists. Forward Josh Livingston netted 13 points and shared team-high rebounding honors with seven boards, alongside guard Mason Carver, who also grabbed a season-high seven rebounds and scored seven points.
Forward QuanDaveon McCollum led four Wolves in double figures with 21 points.
HOW IT HAPPENED
First Half
The Trojans were red-hot through the first half and rode a 62.5 percent field goal accuracy (5-of-8) in the opening five minutes, while equaling their largest lead of the night (12-7) on Livingston's 3-pointer from the right wing with 15:45 on the clock.
Newberry nearly matched the Black and Gold's field-goal accuracy (8-of-16) and edged out to an 18-17 advantage midway through the half, before AU reeled off an 8-2 surge to match their largest lead, at 25-20, with less than four minutes left in the half. The Wolves countered by chasing down the Trojans and knotted the score (30-30) just before halftime.
Second Half
Newberry used a 7-1 run early in the second stanza to claim its largest lead of the contest, at 42-35, and still led by seven (47-40) midway through the half. But behind a pair of 3-pointers from Livingston and four points from Dortch, the Trojans regained a brief 50-49 lead.
Four minutes later, James connected on a pair of free throws to give AU a 63-58 cushion with 3:05 on the clock, but the Wolves countered with nine unanswered points in 52 seconds to claim a 67-65 lead with 88 seconds remaining. James then dropped in a runner in the lane to get the Trojans within two and following a miss on the other end by the Wolves, James dropped in a pair of free throws with just 32.8 ticks left to deadlock the score at 67 apiece.
After a Newberry timeout, Ford drove to the basket and missed the shot, but Low tapped it in before the Trojans got off a desperation heave at the buzzer that bounded off the backboard.
ANDERSON STAT OF THE NIGHT
The lead changed hands 15 times and neither team led by more than seven points on the night.
NOTABLES
• With his seventh basket of the afternoon at UVA Wise, Crosby James scored his 1,000th career point, becoming just the 16th men's basketball player in school history to reach the plateau - and just the fifth player to score 1,000 career points in three seasons or less. His jumper with 31 seconds left moved him into 15th-place all-time on the school's scoring list with 1,007 points. The Columbia native now needs 17 points to move past Jeremy Bouton (2015-19) for 14th place.
• AU's win/loss margin in 14 of its 24 games this season has been by an average of 3.2 points.
• The Trojans and Wolves have met 29 times since the 2003-04 season, with Anderson holding an 18-11 edge in the overall series.
• Despite the setback, the Trojans have won three of the last five matchups with Newberry and eight of the last 12 meetings with the Wolves.
• With four games remaining on their regular-season schedule, the Trojans are in 10th place in the battle for a berth in next month's eight-team SAC Tournament - a half-game behind both Limestone and Lenoir-Rhyne, who are tied for eighth – and two games behind seventh-place Catawba.
• Newberry earned a sweep of the regular season series for the first time since the 2015-16 campaign.
• After being out-rebounded by three in the first half, AU bounced back to out-rebounded the Wolves, 35-33, on the night.
UP NEXT
The Trojans play host to Lenoir-Rhyne, Saturday afternoon at 4 p.m., before embarking on their final two-game road swing of the season. The Trojans will be looking for a sweep of the regular season series after knocking off the Bears,
77-74, in mid-December.
