WICHITA - The Newman men's basketball team used a true team effort to pick up an 84-77 win over Dallas Baptist Saturday afternoon inside Fugate Gymnasium. Six player finished with eight points or more for the Jets.

Newman (11-9, 4-3 Heartland) took the early momentum, scoring on back-to-back possessions to start the game, and opened with an early 4-0 lead. Dallas Baptist (11-9, 3-4 Heartland) countered with five-straight points, and took a 5-4 lead after Nick Fox converted an old-fashioned three-point play at the 17:44 mark. Those three points were the first three of many for the DBU post. They were also the last points by the Patriots until a pair of Braxton Adamson free throws with 15:20 to play. Newman limited the Patriots to nothing but free throws until the 13:24 mark, when another Fox lay-up gave the visitors another one-point lead, 11-10. A Chip Steven three-pointer on Newman's ensuing possession gave the Jets a 13-11 lead, and sparked a 14-4 run that gave Newman a 24-15 lead with 9:10 to play in the opening half. Two minutes later, Newman had extended its lead to 12 when Tyler Nordman drained a triple to give his squad a 29-17 edge. Two minutes after that, DBU had snuck back to within eight after a Jordan McGowen trey, but that was as close as the Patriots could get in the opening half. After 20 minutes of play, Newman held a 43-32 advantage.

Dallas Baptist forced back-to-back Newman turnovers in the opening stages of the second half, and converted both of them into points as part of an 8-0 Patriot run to open the final period. That run cut Newman's lead to three, 43-40, with 17:54 to play. DBU completed its comeback attempt just under three minutes later when Adamson drained a trey to tie the game at 49-49. Newman countered with an Eric Saunders jumper on the next possession that sparked a 9-2 run, capped by a Kyle Grant lay-up that gave the Jets a 58-51 edge with 11:24 to play. A Keaton Schultz trey just better than 30 seconds later pushed Newman's lead to eight, 61-53, but was also the last points Newman scored for the next two minutes and 41 seconds. During that time the Patriots chipped their way back into the game, and had trimmed the Newman lead to five, 62-57, after a Saunders free throw with 8:18 remaining. Again, DBU completed its come-back, and took a three-piont, 66-63 lead after another Fox lay-up that capped a 13-2 DBU run. But the Jets were far from done. Tommy Brumbelow took Newman's comeback efforts into his own hands, scoring the next four points to help the Jets re-gain the lead, which it pushed to six points after Kyle Grant nailed a trey to give Newman a 72-66 lead with 4:27 still to play. Two minutes later, Schultz drained a triple to give Newman a 79-69 lead with 2:22 left on the clock. From there, Newman cruised to the 84-77 win.

Eric Saunders led the Jets with 16 points, four assists, and three rebounds, while Tommy Brumbelow added 13 points and a team-high seven rebounds. Keaton Schultz, Chip Steven, and Kyle Grant each added nine points for the Jets, who shot an even 50 percent (30-60) from the floor, and forced 23 DBU turnovers.

Nick Fox finished with a game-high 30 points to lead the Patriots.

With the win, Newman improves to 11-9 on the season, and 4-3 in Heartland Conference play. The Jets will be back in action Monday when they host Arkansas-Fort Smith. Tip-time inside Newman's Fugate Gymnasium is slated for 7 p.m.