PREVIEW: Women’s Basketball closes out 2024 at Newberry

Newberry, S.C. —- The Catawba College women's basketball team closes out the 2024 calendar on Wednesday, returning to South Atlantic Conference play with a road matchup with Newberry at Eleazer Arena.

THE MATCHUP

- Who: Catawba (7-5, 5-3 SAC) at Newberry (5-7, 4-4 SAC)

- Where: Eleazer Arena, Newberry, S.C.

- When: Wednesday, Dec. 17, 5:30 p.m.

- How to follow: FloSports ($) | Live stats

THE HISTORY

- Catawba leads all-time series 41-24

- The Catawba Indians are 15-13 all-time in Newberry

- Catawba won the first eight meetings in Newberry, but lost eight of the next nine; at Newberry was one of the 2022-23 national semifinalists' two losses in 18 conference games

GOODLETT GOES FAR

- Bailee Goodlett once again led Catawba in scoring on Monday, scoring 17 points in the loss vs. 23rd-ranked North Georgia

- The outing was Goodlett's fifth straight game scoring in double figures

- The freshman from Salisbury currently leads the SAC with a 57 percent three-point percentage

BOUNCING BACK

- Catawba will look to rebound after suffering its first regular season losses at Goodman Arena since February 2022

- The Catawba Indians fell in back-to-back home games for the first time since the spring COVID season in 2020-21

- Its opponents were 10th-ranked Carson-Newman and 23rd-ranked North Georgia, the top two teams ranked in the D2SIDA Southeast region poll

- Four of Catawba's five losses this season have come to nationally ranked opponents; Catawba boasts the eighth-most difficult strength of schedule in the Southeast region to date

A PEAK AT THE CONFERENCE STANDINGS

- Through eight league games, Catawba has already suffered as many losses (3) as it did in its entire 20-game SAC slate a season ago

- The Catawba Indians currently stand in a tie for fourth with its first opponent in the new year - Mars Hill

- Carson-Newman, Coker and Wingate all currently have one loss in conference play, but they rank in that respective order due to each of the former playing one more SAC game than the latter

- Catawba opens the 2025 calendar year with four straight matchups against teams currently .500 or better opponents in SAC play, including road matchups of one-loss SAC teams Wingate and Coker on Jan. 8 and 15, respectively

SCOUTING THE WOLVES

- Newberry's Jess Tompkins earned the most recent WePlayed Sports SAC Women's Basketball Player of the Week, averaging 23.5 points per game on 64 percent shooting from the field along with nine rebounds, two assists, 1.5 blocks and a steal per game

- Tompkins' big week included a 31-point eruption in Newberry's overtime win over Lincoln Memorial

- Tompkins leads the team and ranks seventh in the SAC with 15.8 points per game

- After the Wolves lost four times in a five-game SAC stretch, the team has bounced back with two straight SAC wins at UVA Wise and over LMU at home; Newberry also holds SAC home wins over Lenoir-Rhyne and Emory & Henry

UP NEXT

- Catawba returns to action in the new year at home, facing Mars Hill at 2 p.m. inside Goodman Arena on Saturday, Jan. 4