Basketball Preview: Newberry Panthers vs. West Port Wolf Pack
The Newberry Panthers will look to take advantage of their home-court for the first time this season as they take on the West Port Wolf Pack at 6:00 p.m. on Friday. Hopefully Newberry focused on turnovers this week as the team gave up 18 on Tuesday.
Newberry is headed into the matchup out to prove that what happened against Gainesville on Tuesday (when they were outscored in every quarter) was just a minor bump in the road. Newberry lost 67-41 to Gainesville. The loss continues a trend for the Panthers in their matchups with the Hurricanes: they've now lost five in a row.
Newberry's defeat shouldn't obscure the performances of Brandy Whitfield, who scored 15 points along with six steals and five rebounds, and Jada Brown, who went 5 for 9 en route to 12 points plus two steals. That was a full 36.6% of Newberry's points, marking the third time in a row she's had more than a third of the team's points. Another player making a difference was Johneisha Mcclendon, who scored three points.
Even though they lost, Newberry smashed the offensive glass and finished the game with 16 offensive rebounds. That strong performance was nothing new for the team: they've now pulled down at least 12 offensive rebounds in three consecutive matches.
Meanwhile, West Port entered their game against Williston on Thursday without any home losses, but there's a first time for everything. West Port took a 61-55 hit to the loss column at the hands of Williston.
West Port's loss ended a three-game streak of wins at home dating back to last season and dropped them to 3-3. As for Newberry, their defeat was their first of the season and makes their record 2-1.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
