Staff report

NEWBERRY, S.C. — Catawba’s men’s basketball team never trailed and blew out Newberry, 98-74,  in the Indians’ South Atlantic Conference opener on Wednesday.

“It’s a good way to start conference play,” Catawba coach Rob Perron said. “We want people to know we’re here to stay.”

Catawba (5-1, 1-0) had another strong shooting night from the floor — 56.3 percent — with Daquan Lilly (7-for-7) and Jeremy McLaughlin (6-for-7) turning in highly efficient performances.

“A lot of nice extra passes to set up some high-percentage shots,” Catawba coach Rob Perron said. “Ben Zemonek set up a lot of things inside.”

Streaky Marcell Haskett was on. He made four 3-pointers and bombed in 22 points.

Catawba jumped out to a quick 16-4 lead.

Thirteen different Indians scored. Lilly scored 14, McLaughlin scored 13, and Malik Constantine had 11 points and eight rebounds.

“Newberry is always deep and always plays hard,” Perron said. “The goal was to show that we’re deeper and that we were going to play even harder.”

Perron said the Indians divided the game up into four-minute segments. They won seven of those 10 four-minute segments and tied another.

Newberry (1-5, 0-2) was led by Angelo Sales with 17 points and 11 rebounds.

Catawba is in the top 10 nationally in scoring at 95 points per game and hosts Tusculum on Saturday at 4 p.m.

CATAWBA (98) — Haskett 22, Lilly 14,  McLaughlin 13, Constantine 11, Taylor 9, Zemonek 8, Cooper 7, Barber 4, Robinson 2, Phillips 2, Jeffers 2, Johnson 2, Cannon 2, Bowen, Curry, Whitfield.

NEWBERRY (74) — Sales 17, Collins 12, Lange 10, Gibson 8, Nielson 5, Boko 5, Brown 5, Wilson 5, Giger 3, Satisfield 2, Tracy 2.

Catawba       49       49      — 98

Newberry    33        41     — 74

SAC scores

Queens 76, L-R 69

Wingate 77, Coker 68

LMU 90, Carson-Newman 68

Anderson 69, Tusculum 64