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NEWBERRY — The Newberry boys basketball team defeated Belleview, 65-24, Wednesday to close the regular season with a 14-7 record.
The Senior Night win helped the Panthers secure their status as top seed in next week’s 1A-District 6 high school tournament.
Early Struggles
Going into the matchup against the 2-18 Belleview Rattlers, the Panthers expected an easy win. However, they came out slow, turning the ball over on their first two possessions and going 0-5 from the field.
The miscues opened the door for Belleview, as it jumped out to a 7-0 lead in the first four minutes of the game. Newberry coach Patrick Green called a timeout to try to get his team back together.
This timeout gave the Panthers the break they needed to come out determined. After a shooting foul, senior Kingston Brannon opened the scoring for Newberry by hitting both his free throws. After some more quick scoring, NHS still trailed 7-5 at the end of the quarter.
Turning Things Around
The second quarter proved much more lucrative for Newberry. The team went on a 19-6 run and were locked in on both ends of the floor.
The Panthers came out with a quick steal and fast-break layup to tie the game and followed it with another quick steal and score to take the lead. Sophomore Henry Mathias came out hot, hitting three 3-pointers to extend the Panthers’ lead to 24-13 at halftime.
Extending the Lead
Coming out of the break, Newberry’s offense continued its dominance, scoring 28 points in the third quarter. Sophomore Juwan Scippio opened the scoring with two quick layups to put the Panthers up 15. They continued to work the ball into the paint, drawing five shooting fouls and hitting 100% of their free throws to further grow the lead.
But, it wasn’t just the offense that was working. Defensively, they forced Belleview into some tough shots, only three points in the entire quarter. Belleview’s early first-quarter dominance was nowhere to be found.
A Proper Sendoff
With a 52-16 lead, it was clear Newberry had the win locked up by the start of the fourth quarter. The Panthers continued their scoring in the paint as well as their free-throw success by not missing a single one. Belleview improved its scoring from the third period, but it was not enough to come back from the deficit.
With 11 seconds left, Green called a timeout to honor his seniors. The gym erupted in cheers when Brannon and Barry Ross stood at center court and smiled.
“It always bittersweet,” Green said. “You love to see those guys go on and be great young men. Even if they don’t go on to play college ball, they’re all going to be fathers and hopefully productive members of society.
“We got guys this year that are really good kids with college scholarships, not necessarily for basketball, but for academics, so it’s nice to see those guys go on to achieve their dreams, but we miss them at the same time.”
Looking Ahead
The Panthers earned a bye in the first round of the district tournament. They’ll play the winner of Tuesday’s first-round game between four seed Union County (10-9) and five seed Bell (2-21) in Thursday’s semifinal. Two seed Hawthorne (13-4) plays three seed Fort White (15-5) in Thursday’s other semifinal. The semifinal winners play for the title Saturday.
