WICHITA – The Newman men's basketball team stayed in the Heartland Conference Tournament hunt with an 81-72 victory over Rogers State on Saturday (Feb. 21) at Fugate Gymnasium on Senior Day. The Jets won their seventh straight home game and moved to 14-10 overall and 10-8 in the Heartland Conference. The Hillcats dropped to 18-8 and 12-6 in the conference.
 
With the win, NU sits one game back from making the Heartland Conference Tournament. St. Mary's currently leads the conference with a 12-5 record then Texas-Permian Basin, UA Fort Smith and St. Edward's are all tied for the second seed with 11-7 records. Only the top four teams make the tournament so NU is one game back from UTPB, UAFS and SEU. The Jets play both UTPB and SEU next week.
 
A 3 from senior Ryan McCarthy with 6:10 remaining put NU up by 10, 64-54. The Hillcats went on a quick 7-0 spurt to cut the deficit to 66-63 with 3:56 left after two RSU free throws, but senior Jeremy Espinoza hit another triple to increase the Jet lead to 69-63 with 3:15 remaining.
 
McCarthy hit two free throws with just under 2 minutes remaining to push the NU margin to 73-65, however, RSU kept things interesting with four straight points, all on free throws, to close the gap to 73-69 with 1:09 remaining.
 
Cortrael Colbert responded with a 3-pointer from the right win to up the NU advantage to 76-69 with 38 seconds remaining. Espinoza hit four free throws in the final 28 seconds to put the Jets in front 80-69.
 
Senior Nathan Veenis scored the final point of the game, hitting one free throw with 1 second remaining in his final game at Fugate Gymnasium for the 81-72 final score.
 
Espinoza scored a career-high 28 points in his last game at Fugate Gymnasium. The senior forward went 7-of-11 from the field and 4-of-7 from 3-point range. He was 10-of-11 from the free throw line. He grabbed a team-high seven rebounds. Senior Ryan McCarthy totaled 10 points and five rebounds. Also in double figures was Reggie Baker with 16 points, James Pegues with 12 points – all in the first half – and Cortrael Colbert with 10 points. Colbert finished with his second straight double-double with 10 points and 10 assists.
 
The Jets shot 46.6 percent (27-58) from the field, including 53.9 percent (14-26) in the second half. After going only 2-of-14 (14.3 percent) from 3 in the first half, NU hit 8-of-13 (61.5 percent) triples in the second stanza. The Jets shot 91.7 percent (11-12) in free throws in the second half and finished at 77.3 percent (17-22).
 
RSU's Frederico Santos tallied a double-double of 21 points and 17 rebounds. The senior shot 7-of-9 from the field and pulled down 14 rebounds in the second half, including nine offensive rebounds. DesJuan Newton added 13 points off the bench.
 
The Hillcats shot 40 percent (22-55) from the field and only 7.1 percent (1-14) from 3.
 
NU looks to keep its postseason chances alive at Texas-Permian Basin on Thursday (Feb. 26) at 7:30 p.m. in Odessa, Texas.