Haylee Lepaio finished with 14 points and nine rebounds as sixth-seeded Newberry College led from start to finish and defeated third-seeded Tusculum College 60-54 in a Food Lion South Atlantic Conference Women's Basketball Tournament quarterfinal game Wednesday night at Pioneer Arena.

The Wolves (16-11) defeated the Pioneers (17-10) for the third time this season by holding Tusculum to 34.5 percent shooting (20-for-58) in the contest. Meanwhile, Newberry shot 45.7 percent (21-for-46) and went 14-for-17 from the foul line, all in the second half, to punch their ticket to Saturday's semifinals. Newberry will face second-seeded Catawba at 8:00 p.m. on Saturday after the Indians downed seventh-seeded Lincoln Memorial 75-65 Wednesday night in another quarterfinal matchup.

Tusculum, which was seeking its third straight SAC Tournament titles, failed to advance past the first round of the SAC Tournament for the first time since 2005. The Pioneers struggled from long range, going just 5-for-23 (21.7 percent) from three-point range in the game.

One highlight for the Pioneers came with 6:31 left in the second half, when junior guard Kendal Baxter sank a long jumper to become the 15th player in program history to score 1,000 points. Baxter finished with a game-high 16 points to increase her career total to 1,003 points.

Lepaio was one of three players to reach double figures for Newberry. Zara Pearson added 11 points off the bench for the Wolves, and Keisha Henderson tallied 10 points and four rebounds.

For the Pioneers, Alishia Mosley continued her hot play off the bench as she connected for 14 points and added six rebounds in 31 minutes of action. Linda Aughburns added nine points and eight rebounds and April McCann chipped in with nine points and seven boards for Tusculum.

"You have to get up on Newberry early. They do a really good job of guarding our perimeter players. We don't have anybody who is exclusively a penetrator who can get create shots for other people," said Pioneer head coach Adell Harris. "Lepaio is a pretty reliable scorer for them, and she has a size advantage over us inside. She made it tough in some spots in the game for us to get an easy two points."

Newberry scored on the game's opening possession on a jumper by Ellie Gleeson, and kept Tusculum from recording a field goal until a layup by Staci Hicks with nearly 5 1/2 minutes gone into the contest. The Wolves took their largest lead of the first half into the locker room, as a three-pointer by Henderson gave Newberry a 28-18 lead at the break.

The Wolves shot 44.4 percent (12-for-27) from the field in the first half, and were led by Lepaio's six points and six rebounds. Pearson and Gleeson also scored six points apiece for Newberry, while Mosley paced the Pioneers with five points. Tusculum shot 7-for-25 (28 percent) from the floor in the opening half.

Newberry built its lead to 14 points on three different occasions, the last coming at 38-24 with 15:01 to play on a steal and layup by Neicey Lewis. However, the Pioneers warmed up from three-point range as Mosley hit one followed by two from Baxter to pull Tusculum with 40-33 with 12:39 on the clock.

The Wolves responded by scoring on four of its next five possession to go back on top by 13 at 48-35 with 10 minutes remaining. Baxter's milestone basket brought the Pioneers within six, as close as they would get in the second half, but the Wolves went 10-for-13 from the line in the final 2:03 to lock up the win.

Tusculum will await word on whether it earns a fifth straight trip to the NCAA Division II Tournament. The field of 64 teams will be announced during the Selection Show, which will be presented Sunday at 10:00 p.m. on NCAA.com.