GREENEVILLE, Tenn. --- Tusculum College trimmed a 21-point second-half deficit to just six with two minutes to play, but Newberry College held off the rally and defeated the Pioneers 78-66 in South Atlantic Conference women's basketball action on Saturday inside Pioneer Arena. Tusculum (6-15, 6-12 SAC) junior guard Shynese Whitener finished in double-figure scoring for the seventh-straight game with a team-high 18 points.

Senior guard Blakeley Burleson had 15 points on 5-of-10 shooting, including four three-pointers. Senior forward Rainey Story had 12 points off the bench and junior forward Kristen McMillion led the Pioneers on the boards with eight rebounds and scored nine points.

After Newberry (16-8, 12-6) matched is largest lead of the contest with a 67-46 lead with 6:21 remaining, TC used a 17-2 run to cut the Wolves lead to 69-63 with 2:10 showing on the clock. The Tusculum defense forced two turnovers and the Wolves missed four layups during that stretch.

Seeing their lead vanish to just six points, Newberry's Haylee Lepaio answered the Pioneer run with a layup and was fouled on the play. She hit the free throw to push the Wolves' lead back to nine. On the other end of the floor, Story was fouled on a layup attempt, but she missed both shots at the line. Tusculum was forced to foul after the misses and sent Samantha Creed to the line, who hit both shots to give Newberry a 74-63 lead with just over a minute to play.

Burleson received the inbound after the Creed free throws and raced down the floor and hit a three pointer to cut the lead to eight with 53 seconds to play and keep the Pioneers' hope alive. Creed was sent back to the free throw line in the ensuing possession and she made both free throws once again to increase Newberry's lead back to 10.

Burleson tried to come back down and hit another three, but her shot couldn't fall. Creed grabbed the rebound and passed it off to Nicola Handreck, who was fouled. She went to the line and made both shots to seal the Wolves' 12-point victory.

In a physical battle down low, Newberry out-scored TC 40-30 in the paint, and held a 43-36 rebounding advantage. TC did force 22 Wolves turnovers compared to just 15 of its own. Each team was nearly identical in shooting with Tusculum at 27-for-65 (41.5%) and Newberry at 29-for-67 (43.3%).

Creed led all scorers with 19 points for Newberry, while Lepaio and Handreck each had 13 and Jayla Schultz added 11. Lepaio also pulled down a team-high eight rebounds.

Burleson began the game with a three-point play to give TC its only lead of the contest at 3-0. With the game knotted at 5-5, Newberry scored 10 unanswered points to take a 15-5 lead seven minutes into the game. Later in the half, Burleson nailed a three to cut the lead back to single-digits at 23-15, but Handreck quickly answered with a three of her own to make the score 26-15 with just less than four minutes before halftime.

TC scored the next four points to cut the lead to seven after two made free throws by sophomore guard Maelyn Cutshaw with just under three minutes before the break. However, Newberry out-scored the Pioneers 10-4 in the final minutes of the first half to take a 36-23 lead into the halftime locker room.

After the break, Newberry held at least a double-digit lead for the first 10 minutes of the second half, and a 6-0 spurt gave them their first of three 21-point leads at 64-43 with 8:33 remaining.

Tusculum will be back in action on Wednesday night (Feb. 18) when it travels across the mountain to take on Mars Hill University at 6:00 p.m.