WICHITA FALLS, Texas - Career nights from Rhea Codio and Celeste Key sparked a second half comeback that led the Newman women's basketball team to a 73-71 win over Midwestern State Monday evening in front of 1,483 fans inside D. L. Ligon Coliseum in Wichita Falls, Texas. Codio led all scorers with 25 points in the win.

Midwestern State (4-6) took the early momentum in Monday evening's contest. The Mustangs scored the first seven points, and held Newman (9-5) off the board until the 15:08 mark of the first half, when Tasha Cannon drained a short-range jumper for the Jets' first points of the evening. Cannon added another jumper on Newman's next possession to pull within three, 7-4. After pulling to within two, 9-7, two minutes later, Midwestern State went on a 13-4 run, and pushed its lead to 20-11 by the 8:38 mark. Newman countered with an 11-5 sport, capped by a Rhea Codio trey, and pulled back to within three once again, but the Jets could never pull closer than two points for the remainder of the first half. After 20 minutes, Midwestern State held a 34-28 advantage.

The Mustangs took their first double-digit lead of the game at the 18:44 mark of the second half when Jazman Patterson's jumper gave MSU a 38-28 advantage. After watching the Jets pull to within five just over a minute later, the Mustangs used a 7-0 run to take a 12-point, 47-35 lead with 15:24 still to play. That's when things got interesting. A pair of Bobbi Coleman free throws sparked a 12-3 Newman run, capped by a pair of free throws from Celeste Key, brought Newman back to within three, 50-47, with 10:04 still to play. Two more Coleman freebies at the 8:10 mark allowed Newman to sneak within one, 52-51, but MSU countered with a 9-2 run, and took a 61-53 lead with 5:56 remaining in the contest.

It was all Newman from taht point forward. Celeste Key turned a steal into two points on Newman's ensuing possession, and sparked a 10-1 run, capped by another Codio trey, that gave the Jets their first lead of the night, 63-62, with 3:10 remaining. The next two minutes of play saw three ties and two lead changes, but Newman took their final lead with another Key lay-up that gave the Jets a 70-69 advantage with 36 seconds remaining. Codio added two free throws to push Newman's lead to 72-69 at the 19-second mark, but a Nolisha Markham lay-up with four seconds remaining erased all but one point of the Newman lead. MSU missed two key free throws in the final five seconds, while Codio added one with three seconds remaining to give Newman the 73-71 win.

Rhea Codio led all scorers with a career-high 25-point outing. Celeste Key added a career-high 14 points of her own, while Bobbi Coleman rounded out Newman's double-digit scorers with 11 points. Tasha Cannon finished one point shy of her third-straight double double, finishing with nine points and a team-high 10 rebounds.

Nolisha Markham led the Mustangs with 19 points.

With the win, the Jets improve to 9-5. They will return to action Saturday, traveling to Fort Smith, Ark., to open Heartland Conference play with a 2 p.m. contest against the Arkansas-Fort Smith Lions.