SALISBURY, N.C. — The Catawba College men's basketball team makes its return to home court Wednesday for a South Atlantic Conference tilt against the Newberry Wolves.

Close One at Mars Hill
- A second-half rally allowed the Catawba Indians to re-enter the win column against Mars Hill in 67-65 fashion on Saturday night in the High Country
- Despite inefficiency on the offensive end, Catawba pressured the Lions with a defensive blitz that resulted in an 18-9 advantage in turnovers
- Scoring was spread out significantly across the roster as Ibra Athie and Nick Walker topped the lineup with 11 points apiece, while Justin Banks also entered double figures with 10
- After sitting out with an injury to begin the calendar year, Chase Daniel made his return a good one with a team-high six rebounds in addition to seven points, two assists and two steals

Blocks 'n' Boards
- Catawba leads the SAC in both per-game offensive rebounds (15.81) and blocks (5.4), also ranking fifth and sixth in the country, respectively
- Banks, who slots sixth in Catawba history for career blocks at 127, sits in third place with 37 swats in his senior campaign
- The Schaumburg, Ill., product also stands third in the SAC with 2.63 offensive rebounds per contest; Banks is close to eclipsing 100 total boards for the third straight season (98)

All-Time Series
- Catawba holds a firm 66-35 advantage in the all-time series against Newberry, spanning 101 games beginning in the 1932-33 season
- The Catawba Indians and Wolves split last year's home-and-home as each host team prevailed; the blue and white won the previous meeting at Goodman Arena, 90-83
- The 102nd meeting of the series will occur 14 years after the last Jan. 21 game – that one was a 91-87 overtime win by Newberry

Scouting the Wolves
- Newberry has been a middle-of-the-road squad despite starting the year 3-0 and winning three of the last five games
- Looking at results against similar opponents, Catawba has beaten a few opponents that Newberry fell against except for the Wolves' early-season pummeling of Tusculum (Catawba lost to TU by a point)
- As a team, the Wolves have been superb at the charity stripe with a league-leading free throw percentage of 77.6% – that clocks in 20th nationally
- Drake Downs, named a SAC WePlayed Sports Player of the Week twice this year, is among the best players Catawba will face this season with four double-doubles while averaging 19.9 points and 7.9 rebounds per tilt

Follow Along
- All SAC games are broadcast live on FloCollege
- Live stats will be provided on CatawbaAthletics.com