LAREDO, Texas - Philicia Kelly and Tasha Cannon provided two-thirds of Newman's offense, as the Jets picked up their first-ever win over Texas A&M International with a 77-61 decision over the Dustdevils Thursday evening at the Kinesiology Building in Laredo, Texas. Kelly finished with 27 points while Cannon finished one point shy of her career high with 22 points in the win.

Texas A&M International (4-15, 1-2 Heartland) hung around with Newman (10-6, 1-0 Heartland) for the first eight minutes of the game. Over that period of time, the Dustdevils forced three ties and five lead changes. TAMIU held a 12-10 lead after a Jennifer Johnson jumper at the 14:15 mark of the first half, but a Philicia Kelly lay-up 90 seconds later sparked a 15-2 run, capped by a Rhea Codio three-pionter, that allowed Newman to take a 25-14 lead with 7:45 to play. Not to be out-done, the Dustdevils countered with a trey from Erika Rosas that sparked a 15-4 run that tied the game at 29-29 when Samantha Chacon drained a trey just inside of the two-minute mark. Before the Dustdevils could do anything more, Kelly converted an old-fashioned three-point play, then added a lay-up after a Tasha Cannon steal on TAMIU's next possession to push Newman's lead back to five, 34-29, by the one-minute mark. TAMIU ended the half on a 4-1 spurt thanks to an Angie Villanueva trey in the final seconds of the half, but Newman held a slim 35-33 lead after the first 20 minutes.

The Dustdevils opened the second half by scoring the first four points of the period, and took brief 37-35 lead after a pair of free throws from Linda Banuelos, then answered a Codio trey on Newman's next possession with four-straight points to take a 41-38 lead with 16:36 to play. Again, Newman had an answer, and it came in the form of a triple from Kelly's hot hand that knotted the game at 41-41, and sparked a 10-3 run that gave the Jets a 51-44 lead after Kelly drained a pair of charity shots with 12:48 remaining. Newman extended that lead to as many as 12, 58-46 in the next three minutes with a Kelly lay-in with 10:08 to play, but a series of free thows, including four-straight by TAMIU's Banuelos after Bobbi Coleman was whistled for a technical foul following a personal foul, pulled the Dustdevils back to within seven, 58-51, with 9:01 remaining on the clock. The Banuelos free throws were TAMIU's last points for the next four minutes, while Newman used a 15-2 run, and held TAMIU scoreless for nearly four minutes, to take their first 20-point lead of the game, a 73-53 cushion after Cannon converted an old-fashioned three-point opportunity with 4:35 remaining. The Dustdevils answered with an 8-0 run to pull within 12 in the final two minutes of the game, but Newman scored the last four points of the contest en route to the 77-61 win.

Philicia Kelly finished with an 11-for-14 outing from the floor en route to a 27 points to lead all scorers in the contest. Cannon added a 9-for-11 performance of her own on her way to 22 points, while Alex Adekunle was the game's high-rebounder with nine boards. Newman converted a season-high 54.9 percent of their shot attempts (28-51) in the game, while holding TAMIU to just 34.6 percent (18-52) from the floor. The Jets out-rebounded TAMIU 45-26.

Samantha Chacon led the Dustdevils with 15 points.

The win pushes Newman's record to 10-6 on the season, and 1-0 in Heartland Conference play. The 10 wins assures the Jets of their first 10-win season since the 2006-07 season when Newman finished with a 10-20 record. Newman will return to action Saturday, concluding their first trip to Texas against league-leading St. Mary's. Tip-time inside Bill Greehey Arena in San Antonio is slated for 2 p.m.