NEWBERRY, S.C. - The Coker College women's basketball team picked up their second consecutive victory in South Atlantic Conference play on Wednesday (Jan. 23) night by taking down Newberry 74-65.
Both teams got out to a slow start in the first quarter as the Cobras limited Newberry to just a pair of point through the opening six minutes of play. The team would end the first quarter with an 11-9 lead, with eight off their 11 points coming by way of Hayley Kropp. During the second quarter the Wolves chipped away at the Coker lead and eventually pulled out to a three point lead midway through the quarter before a run by the Cobras. After going down three with six minutes till halftime, the Cobras stormed back out in front with a 13-0 run that included buckets from Kropp, Amanda Cherry, Saquita Joyner, Erin Houser, and Haliyah Sumter.
A quick three-pointer by Cherry early in the third quarter stretched the Coker lead out to 10 before Newberry began to chip away at the Coker lead once again. Newberry used a run of their own to level the game midway through the third quarter and after a few lead changes the teams headed into the fourth quarter all knotted up at 48. To open the fourth quarter the Cobras surged back in front once again after a pair of layups from Kropp and one by Joyner. Coker fought off a few attempts by Newberry to tie it up but the Cobras battled back each time and eventually pushed their lead to as much as nine with just under four minutes to play in the game. With just one minute to play, the Wolves got it back to just a five point game before clutch free-throw shooting by Ashauntee Nelson and Shay Jackson slammed the door shut.
Kropp was excellent once again as she went for a game-high 25, which tops her previous season-high of 24 points. Jackson and Joyner were next leading scorers with nine points each, while both Cherry and Sumter recorded eight points. Nelson notched seven points, and House and Hope Richardson each had four points on the night. Aloni McFarland also led the team in assists with three.
The Navy and Gold were solid shooting the ball as a team, while shooting just over 43% from the field and making 41% of their attempts from long range. More importantly, the Cobras went 15-19 (78.9%) from the free-throw line on the night and made 12 of those in the fourth quarter to seal the victory.
The Cobras will be back in action on Saturday (Jan. 26) when they welcome Lincoln Memorial University to town for a SAC showdown starting at 2:00 PM.