Box Score WICHITA- The Newman women's basketball team remained in the hunt to host the Heartland Conference tournament with a 67-54 victory over St. Edward's Thursday night inside Fugate Gymnasium. Satoria Bell led the Jets with 25 points.

Newman (19-5, 8-2 Heartland) didn't take long to get re-aquainted with Fugate Gymnasium, when Samantha Soyez converted a jumper at the 19:49 mark. Baskets by Alina Voroenko and Tasha Cannon gave the Jets a 6-0 edge with 18:45 left in the half. Monica James ended the St. Edward's (4-20, 1-9 Heartland) drought at the 18:20 mark to cut the deficit to 6-2. Satoria Bell's three-ball with 16:38 left in the period gave Newman a 9-4 advantage, but Maddie Wheeler connected on a three of her own to scratch St. Edward's to within 9-7 at the 15:27 mark. Both teams went basket-for-basket for the better part of 11 minutes until a Brittany Ward jumper paced a 6-0 Hilltopper run, and gave St. Edward's a 31-26 lead with 2:04 left in the half. An Ellen Traylor free-throw ended a four-minute drought for the Jets, but the Hilltoppers ended the half on a pair of Wheeler free-throws with four seconds left to take a 33-27 halftime lead.

St. Edward's opened up the second half with a pair of free throws from James to give the Hilltoppers a 35-27 lead in the first 10 seconds of the half. Satoria Bell converted a lay-up and a pair of free throws at the 19:02 mark to inch Newman to within 35-31. St. Edward's punched back with a 6-0 spurt, highlighted by a James lay-up to give the Hilltoppers a 42-31 advantage with 16:59 left in regulation. A Tasha Cannon jumper paced an 11-2 run, covering five minutes to tie the ball game at 42-42 at the 13:15 mark.  The game remained deadlocked with 8:26 left to play, before a Satoria Bell free-throw fueled a lethal 18-3 run, lasting nearly eight minutes off of the game clock to give the Jets a 66-51 lead with 1:23 to go. Kianna Flannagan's free-throw with 36 seconds left to play would be the final point Newman would score en route to the 67-54 victory.

Satoria Bell led all scorers with 25 points, and shot a perfect eight-for-eight from the charity stripe. Tasha Cannon and Alina Vorenenko joined Bell in double-figures, netting 16 and 11 points, respectively. As a team, Newman shot 56.3 percent (27-48) from the field, while connecting on 28.6 percent (2-7) from beyond the arc. The Jets out-rebounded the Hilltoppers 32-23.

With the victory, Newman improves to 19-5 on the season, and 8-2 in Heartland Conference play. The Jets will return to Fugate Gymnasium on Saturday, when Texas-Permian Basin comes to Wichita in a battle of the top two teams in the Heartland Conference. Tip-time is scheduled for 12 p.m.