SAN ANTONIO, Texas- The Newman men's basketball team dropped its third-consecutive Heartland Conference game in a 72-63 loss to St. Mary's, Thursday evening inside Bill Greehey Arena. Chuck Coley led the Jets with a career-high 20 points.

Newman (15-7, 7-3 Heartland) dug itslef in a hole early in Thursday's game. A Daryell Taylor jumper at the 19:32 mark ignited an 11-2 run to start game action. St. Mary's (14-7, 7-3 Heartland) extended itslead to 15-5, following a Kevin Kotzur lay-up at the 12:17 mark. A Ryan Mesh free-throw with 12:02 left in the first half, brought some life back for the Jets, as they went on a 10-4 Newman spurt to trim the lead to 19-15 with 9:20 remaining in the period. Both teams traded off baskets for the next three minutes, before a Joe Monroe jumper paced a 6-0 Rattler run, that spread the St. Mary's lead to 27-17 with 4:09 left on the clock. Shamar Acuay scored the next six points for Newman and clawed the Jets to within 27-23 at the 2:09 mark. The run was short-lived, as the Rattlers scored four unanswered points to lead 31-23 with 1:16 left in the period. A Ryan McCarthy three-pointer, followed by a Kyle Grant lay-up sliced the St. Mary's lead to 31-28 with six seconds left, but Lamb Autrey knocked down a three-ball at the buzzer to give the Rattlers a 34-28 lead going into intermission.

Neither team could gain the momentum in the opening two minutes of the second half, until a Darrell Traylor lay-up generated four-straight points to pull the Jets within 36-35 with 17:15 remaining in regulation. Newman took its first lead of the game at the 15:27 mark, when Chuck Coley converted an old-fashioned three-point play to give the Jets a 39-38 advantage. The next four minutes was a struggle for both teams from the field, but a Daryell Taylor jumper gave St. Mary's a 50-45 lead at the 9:54 mark. A Kyle Grant lay-up ended a two-minute drought for both teams to pull the Jets to within 50-47, but that was the closest Newman could get. Another Kotzur lay-up sparked an 11-3 run, that lasted three-plus minutes to give the Rattlers a 61-53 lead with 4:20 remaining in the game. Newman could only muster 10 points in the final five minutes en route to a 72-63 defeat.

Coley was joined in double-figures by Shamar Acuay and Darrell Traylor, chipping in 15 and 11 points, respectively. As a team, Newman shot 50 percent (25-50) from the field, but only connected on 25 percent (2-8) of its attempts from beyond-the-arc.

With the loss, the Jets drop to 15-7 on the season, and 7-3 in Heartland Conference playThe Jets wrap up their five-game road trip on Saturday, when they travel to Laredo, Texas to take on the Dustdevils of Texas A&M-International. Tip-time is scheduled for 2:30 p.m. inside the Kinesiology Building on the campus of TAMIU.

--www.newmanjets.com--

--www.newmanjets.com--