WICHITA, Kan. — Senior Gavin Thurman poured in a season-high 27 points and added eight rebounds, leading four players in double figures as the Newman men's basketball team led wire-to-wire to dispatch Bethel College, 99-77, Monday night.
In the final nonconference tune-up at home for the Jets (6-1), Thurman shot 9-of-13 from the floor and 3-of-6 from deep to help push hot-shooting Newman's winning streak to three games over the past 10 days. The hosts shot 52.1 percent for the game, including 46.9 percent from 3-point range to hold off the Threshers (2-11), who shot nearly as well. The Jets have scored 99, 98 and 92 points over their three-game winning streak, the first time they've scored at least 90 in three consecutive games since January 2009.
Junior Daniel Nwosu also reached a season-high with 18 points, with all of his scoring coming on six 3-pointers in seven attempts. Junior Jarvis Williams scored 12 points, while seinor Cortrael Colbert dumped in 10. That pairing combined for seven assists, while senior James Pegues went for nine points and six rebounds.
Pegues scored the first five points of the night for Newman, including the trey just 29 seconds in that gave the Jets the lead for good on the night. Thurman — who went 8-of-10 from the field and a perfect 6-for-6 at the line to score 24 of his points in the first half — collected the next five Jet points to push the lead to six at 10-4 with 17:16 to go. More buckets by Thurman at 11:40 and 9:50 pushed the lead to seven and then nine at 27-18.
When back-to-back baskets from Bethel cut the lead to six once again with just under eight minutes to play in the opening half, Newman responded with a 26-8 run that spanned nearly seven minutes to push the advantage to 20 and beyond. Thurman would net 13 of those points. The streak started with an 8-0 run keyed by a pull-up 3-pointer and later a steal and dish from Nwosu. After a quick Thresher trey, a pair of freebies out of Thurman as well as a 3-pointer and a jumper helped a 12-0 spurt for the Jets that pushed the lead to 23.
The 19-point lead at intermission would jump to 22 as Thurman nailed his last points of the game on a 3 to make it 61-39 just 90 seconds into the second half, but the guests reeled off 13 straight to suddenly cut the deficit back to single digits. The Newman lead would twice get as small as eight with about 15 minutes to play, and dip to five at just 69-64 with 13:05 left in the contest. It was during that stretch that Nwosu hit all four of his second-half shots from beyond the arc, first to jump the lead from eight back to 11, then to stop the 6-0 Thresher run that made it just a five-point game.
Two more triples made it 78-64 and 81-68, and helped the Jets finish the game on a 30-13 outburst. Senior Jalen Love scored four points — all coming during the stretch run of the second half — added six rebounds, and led the team in assists, blocks and steals, recording five, two and three, respectively. The Jets outrebounded their opponent for the third straight game, holding a 40-31 edge on the glass. They scored 25 points off of 16 Bethel turnovers, and scored over a third of their points (34) on the fastbreak.
Newman goes on the road for its last nonconference contest of the season Saturday, heading to Liberty, Missouri for a 3 p.m. tipoff against William Jewell.
