The Santa Fe Raiders struggled with assists on Wednesday (the Newberry Panthers had 18 more) and sadly the final score reflected it. Santa Fe had to suffer through a rough 67-36 loss at the hands of Newberry. Santa Fe has not had much luck with Newberry recently, as the team's come up short the last four times they've met.
Santa Fe lost despite a true team effort on the offense, the best among them being Natalie Chohan, who scored 11 points along with three steals. Chohan scored a full 30.6% of Santa Fe's points, the third time in a row she's earned more than a third of the team's points. The team also got some help courtesy of Haleigh Richburgh, who scored nine points.
Newberry found their leader in underclassman Brandy Whitfield, who scored 21 points along with eight assists and eight steals. The matchup was Whitfield's fifth in a row with at least ten points. Another player making a difference was Sarah Beaulieu, who scored 16 points along with seven assists and five steals.
Santa Fe's defeat was their third straight at home, which bumped their record down to 3-4. Those losses could be blamed on the team's offensive performance across that stretch, as they only averaged 27.0 points per game. As for Newberry, they have been performing well recently as they've won three of their last four matchups, which provided a nice bump to their 5-2 record this season.
Santa Fe will head out on the road to face off against Mount Dora at 7:00 p.m. on Friday. Mount Dora has been getting the ball to fall more lately as they've increased their point totals each of their last three games. Newberry won't have much time to rest: their next contest is against Chiefland at 6:00 p.m. on December 14th. Chiefland is also coming in off of a big victory, so somebody is in for a big reversal of fortune.
