Newberry Advances To Food Lion SAC Tournament Final With 75-62 Victory Over Tusculum

HICKORY, N.C. - Tonique Frasier scored 27 points to lead third-seeded Newberry to a 75-62 victory over seventh-seeded Tusculum in the semifinals of the 2007 Food Lion South Atlantic Conference Tournament on Saturday evening at the CVCC Arena. The Lady Indians now advance to the championship game where they will face Carson-Newman tomorrow afternoon at 2:00 p.m.

Newberry (23-6) would score 31 points off 19 Pioneer turnovers and also out-rebounded Tusculum (16-13) by a margin of 36-27.

The Lady Indians would jump out to a 14-6 lead when Ashlee Wright hit a jumper at the 14:14 mark. Tusculum responded by cutting the Newberry lead to three points at 20-17 when Shantae Shank converted a layup at the 9:27 mark. Newberry would go on to outscore Tusculum 18-12 over the last 9:02 of the first half to take a 38-29 lead into the locker room at halftime.

In the second half, Newberry started off on a 20-7 run to jump out to a 58-36 lead with 10:31 remaining in the game as they went on to the 13-point victory.

Fraiser finished 11-of-17 from the field while grabbing a game-high nine rebounds. Ashlee Wright scored 19 points while Monica Alexander finished with 11 points and four steals.

Tusculum was led in scoring by Chassity Martin, who finished with 19 points. Brooke Underwood contributed 14 points and finished the game with seven assists.

Newberry Head Coach Jason Brink...

"Our open court pressure was real good tonight. We forced them into 19 turnovers that prevented them from getting into rhythm. Our goal at the beginning of the game was two fold: One, we were not going to let Ashley Oliver beat us and we held her to three points. The other was to hold them to six or seven three-pointers and we did that. Our other goal was to win the battle of the boards by 10, and we were close to that.

On tomorrows championship game..

"Our kids are focused on tomorrow's championship game. Our girls have talked all week about defending our SAC Tournament championship.

Tusculum Head Coach Missy Tiber...

"I'm really pleased with what our team accomplished this year with everything we have gone through. Their defensive intensity was something we could not match. Their defense was turning directly into their offense. I don't look at how many turnovers we forced, that is not part of our game. I do look at three-pointers, because that is a part of our game. Tonight I know why we weren't getting them because they weren't letting us.

Newspaper Box Score (Final)
At Hickory, N.C. (CVCC
NEWBERRY 75, TUSCULUM 62
TUSCULUM
Martin, Chassity 6-13 4-5 19; Underwood, Brooke 5-8 4-5 14; Barta, Lindsay
3-7 2-2 8; Shank, Shantae 3-5 0-0 7; French, Emily 2-3 0-0 6; Lakey, Carlie
1-2 3-4 5; Oliver, Ashli 1-7 0-0 3; Neves, Diana 0-3 0-0 0. Totals 21-48
13-16 62.
NEWBERRY
Tonique Frasier 11-17 5-6 27; Ashlee Wright 8-17 3-3 19; Monica Alexander
5-10 1-1 11; Bulcher, Anita 2-4 1-2 5; Tosha Goodman 2-3 0-0 4; Laura
Marquardt 2-5 0-0 4; Jenkins, Cicely 1-3 0-0 2; Smith, Angela 0-1 0-0 0;
Tygress Hope 0-2 0-0 0. Totals 31-62 13-17 75.
Tusculum............ 29 33 - 62
Newberry............ 38 37 - 75
3-point goals-Tusculum 7-20 (Martin, Chassity 3-7; French, Emily 2-3; Shank,
Shantae 1-2; Oliver, Ashli 1-7; Neves, Diana 0-1), Newberry 0-1 (; Monica
Alexander 0-1). Fouled out--Tusculum-Shank, Shantae. Rebounds-Tusculum 27 (Underwood, Brooke 7), Newberry 36 (Tonique Frasier 9).
Assists-Tusculum 11 (Underwood, Brooke 7), Newberry 11 (Ashlee Wright 3;
Monica Alexander 3). Total fouls-Tusculum 17, Newberry 15. A-485