AUSTIN, Texas — Gavin Thurman turned in his third straight 27-point game and added a game-high seven rebounds, and James Pegues chipped in 21 points, but the Newman men's basketball team couldn't solve St. Edward's late, falling 97-90 in its Heartland Conference opener Thursday night.
KEY SEQUENCE
With the game marred by fouls, the Hilltoppers (8-1, 1-0 Heartland) were able to make the most of their free throws while holding the lead over the final seven minutes. A 16-4 run took it from 73-69 in favor of the Jets (7-2, 0-1 Heartland) to an eight-point lead for the hosts.
HOW IT HAPPENED
-It took the Jets over seven minutes to jump in front for the first time, which came on a basket from Kevin Bryant to make it 11-10 with 12:52 to go in the first half. That was part of an 11-2 run by Newman that covered over three minutes and saw Thurman post four points.
-That outburst only gave the guests a four-point cushion, which the Hilltoppers managed to close shortly. A Jarvis Williams layup gave the lead back to the Jets, and back-to-back 3-pointers from Thurman pushed the lead to 24-19 at the 8:39 mark.
-St. Edward's managed to pull out to five-point leads two times in the final five minutes of the opening half, but a four-point run by Williams and Pegues helped close the first gap, and five straight points from Pegues tied it up at 36-all.
-Layups by Daniel Nwosu and Taylor Schieber in the final minute drew the Jets even in a 40-40 tie at intermission.
-Pegues and Williams made it an 8-0 run with two more buckets to start the second half, but the Hilltoppers ran off seven straight points to reclaim the lead at the 17:45 mark. The Jets managed to tie it up once, but St. Edward's built the lead as high as eight at 60-52 with 13:39 left before Newman started to climb back.
-Schieber and Thurman made a SEU technical foul hurt, sinking four free throws to pull back within four, and Thurman and Nwosu made four straight two minutes later to make it a two-point game at 62-60.
-Pegues sank two freebies then hit a 3-pointer on the next possession to give the Jets their first lead in nearly eight minutes at 65-64 with 11:03 to play, and four straight points from Thurman extended the lead to five with just under 10 minutes to play.
-Pegues pushed the lead to five once again with a layup less than a minute later, and a bucket on Newman's next possession made it 73-69 with 8:57 to play. The Hilltoppers would go on a 16-6 run from that point to build a healthy margin moving into the final minutes of the game.
-Williams twice pulled the Jets back to within five, first with free throws to make it 86-81 with 2:55 left, then a big 3-pointer to bring it to 92-87 with just 27 seconds left, but the Hilltoppers responded each time.
NOTES
-Thurman shot 8-of-17 from the field to record his third consecutive 27-point game. Over that stretch, he has made 27 out of his 49 field goals (55.1 percent), exactly half of his 18 3-pointers, and — after a 9-for-9 performance Thursday — 18-of-24 from the line.
-No other Newman player in the Division II era has scored at least 27 points for three straight games, and Thurman's 81 points over three games is topped only by the 85 points Reggie Baker netted over a three-game span last season.
-After committing just six fouls in the first half, the Jets were whistled for 22 in the second half, and St. Edward's responded by making 29-of-35 from the stripe after halftime.
-The teams combined for a stretch of nearly four minutes without a field goal midway through the second half, going 0-for-6 from the field from the 15:36 mark until 11:46. The teams did manage to go 17-for-18 from the line during that time frame.
WHAT'S NEXT
The Jets wrap up their conference-opening roadtrip Saturday afternoon at 3, taking on Texas-Permian Basin in Odessa, Texas.
