Mount Olive women fall to Newberry

By Ryan Hanchett
Published in Sports on November 16, 2013 11:43 PM

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MOUNT OLIVE -- Katie Paschal's potential buzzer-beater fell short and Newberry escaped with a 74-72 win over Mount Olive College on Saturday night.

A clash of styles played out from the opening tip as the Wolves' size inside eventually won out over the Trojans' quickness and outside shooting.

"We clearly have some things that we need to work on," Mount Olive head coach Wendy Lee said. "We did not do a very good job of boxing out on the weak side and that allowed (Newberry) to use their size and made their advantage that much more noticeable."

Haylee Lepaio used all of her 6-foot, 3-inch frame to dominate the lane and score all of the Wolves' points over the first three minutes. Newberry pulled ahead 6-2 early. Mount Olive worked its way back thanks to a pair of baskets from Joneiqua Gary. A layup by Jasmine McDonald pushed the Trojans ahead 10-8.

The Trojans opened an 11-point lead with six minutes left before the intermission, but Newberry battled back at the free-throw line as foul trouble relegated a trio of Mount Olive starters to the bench. Despite the adversity, the Trojans maintained a 38-34 halftime advantage.

Newberry got back-to-back baskets from Lapaio and a layup from Samantha Creed to take the lead early in the second half.

Gary answered with consecutive three-point baskets that put Mount Olive back ahead 44-41. A layup by Anamaria Zjacic and a jumper from beyond the arc by Andrea Jones capped an 11-0 run with 15 minutes left in the game.

Mount Olive built a nine-point lead with 10 minutes to play, but could not stop the Wolves in the paint. Lapaio and Creed scored four consecutive baskets that got their team back in the game.

With the score tied at 68-68 it was Creed's turn. Her driving layup put the visitors in front. After a jumper by Jones tied the contest at 70-70, Creed drew a foul and sank both free throws with 40 seconds left.

The teams traded free throws in the final 10 seconds before Paschal's desperation three-point shot hit the front of the rim and bounced out.

"This is a good group and I think they realize that they can beat bigger teams," Lee said. "We just didn't execute very well down the stretch and Newberry hit free throws at big moments. We will go back and look at the film and make some adjustments at practice this week."

Lapaio led the Wolves with 27 points and six rebounds. Creed added 18 points and seven boards. Newberry finished the game with a 41-25 advantage on the glass.

Gary paced Mount Olive with 23 points. Jones finished with 20 and Paschal added 10 points. McDonald tallied nine assists and pulled down eight rebounds.

Mount Olive (1-2) plays host to Elizabeth City State on Nov. 23.