WICHITA – Newman women's basketball team extended its winning streak to five games after beating St. Mary's, 68-58, Monday afternoon inside Fugate Gymnasium.
Philicia Kelly led the Jets with 24 points in the team's final home game .
Aside from an early 4-2 Rattler advantage, Newman (16-7, 6-1 Heartland) led the entire game. St. Mary's (14-10, 6-3 Heartland) could not overcome the hot-shooting Jets who shot 51.1 percent from the field in the game. The Jets started the game with a layup by
Alex Adekunle. St. Mary's answered with four straight points, but a
Philicia Kelly three-pointer sparked a 19-4 run capped by a Kelly layup that gave Newman a 21-8 lead with 12:59 to play in the first half. Two minutes later, the Rattlers crawled back within nine, but back-to-back layups from
Tasha Cannon and
Rhea Codio pushed Newman's lead back to 13, 27-14 at the 8:19 mark. Again, the Ratllers rallied, narrowing Newman's lead to five, 27-22, after a pair of Mallory Moeller free throws with 6:16 still to play. But Newman ended the half on a 12-8 spurt to take a 39-30 lead at halftime.
Kristen Williams started the second half with two layups to assist the Rattlers in a 6-0 run, cutting Newman's lead 39-36 in the first two minutes of the second half. St. Mary's stayed within striking distance until
Philicia Kelly scored a layup, starting an 8-0 run for the Jets, capped by a Cannon layup that gave Newman a 51-41 lead with 11:28 left. Newman stretched that lead to as many as 13 on four occasions over the next eight minutes before the Rattlers pieced together an 8-0 run to draw within five in the final two mintues, but Newman scored the last five points of the game, and picked up the 68-58 win.
Philicia Kelly led both teams in scoring with 24 points. Assisting the Jets were
Tasha Cannon with nine points, 11 rebounds, and five steals, and
Alex Adekunle with 10 points and five rebounds.
Kristen Williams led St. Mary's with 19 points and 10 rebounds.
Newman is now tied for first in Heartland Conference with Texas-Permian Basin. The Jets will continue play on Thursday, Feb. 17 in Austin, Texas.
