WICHITA, Kan. — A furious second-half comeback cut a 10-point deficit into a momentary lead, but the Newman men's basketball team would see Arkansas-Fort Smith answer to take the lead and hold on through a last-second shot in a 79-78 win for the Lions Saturday afternoon in a Heartland Conference game at Fugate Gymnasium.
KEY SEQUENCE
Closing a 16-5 run with a circus-shot layup from Jalen Love, the Jets (11-7, 4-6 Heartland) took the lead at 78-77 with a minute to play. The Lions (15-3, 8-2 Heartland) answered with a layup of their own to take the lead, but had to hold their breath through the final seconds, as Kevin Bryant stole an inbounds pass and got the ball to Cortrael Colbert, whose 18-footer barely rimmed out to send the second-place Lions home with the win.
HOW IT HAPPENED
-A James Pegues 3-pointer opened the game and gave the Jets the early lead, as did Gavin Thurman's layup after the senior blocked a shot on the defensive end. The Lions were able to rattle off 11 straight points over the next two minutes to make it 14-5, but Newman would respond.
-A jumper from Thurman and a lay-in from Love cut the lead to five, and a pull-up jumper from Colbert a few minutes later cut the UAFS lead to 15-11. Freshman Christian DeYoung hit a 3-pointer to cut the margin to four once again at the 12:49 mark, and another from deep made it 20-19 as the clock ticked under 11 minutes.
-The Jets didn't pull even until a jumper from Daniel Nwosu and a layup out of Taylor Schieber made it 26-all with 7:31 to go in the opening half, and a 3-ball from Schieber over a minute later answered a three-point play by the Lions and tied things up at 29.
-Newman took the lead for the first time in nearly 17 minutes when DeYoung stroked another 3-pointer at the 1:23 mark to make it 36-34 in favor of the Jets. Thurman pocketed a stick-back to put the Jets up one more time before UAFS tied things at 38-38 to end the half.
-The Lions took control quickly in the second half, hitting back-to-back 3-pointers coming out of the locker room and adding another 6-0 run to take a 10-point lead at 50-40 with just over two minutes gone in the second half.
-The Jets cut the lead to seven on multiple occasions, and were able to pull within five on a Colbert jumper and then a Love 3-pointer to make it 60-55 with 13:39 left, although the UAFS lead ballooned to 10 on two more occasions, the second one at 72-62 with 8:15 to play.
-Newman went on its biggest run of the game from that point, scoring 16 of the final 23 points. A Colbert layup followed by a DeYoung 3 quickly cut things to a five-point deficit, followed by a Schieber layup and a deep 3-pointer from DeYoung to tie things up with 5:16 to go.
-Thurman laid one in after a UAFS 3-pointer to cut the deficit back down to one point, and two free throws from Colbert did the same thing with 1:47 to play. Love made it four straight points on his layup to take the lead with 1:01 to play before the Lions answered and held on for the win.
NOTES
-DeYoung, a redshirt freshman, showed up in a big way in his eighth appearance of the year, netting a career-high 15 points on 5-of-6 shooting, all from beyond the arc. He played 22 minutes against the Lions after playing 16 total in his first seven games. He also more than doubled his previous best scoring, besting his seven points against Oklahoma Panhandle State Jan. 9.
-Thurman netted 19 points—11 in the second half on 5-of-10 shooting—to lead the Jets for the fifth time in 10 conference games. The senior also put up team highs with eight rebounds, two blocks and two steals.
-Love finished with 15 points to end his weekend with a two-game average of 22.5. He shot 5-of-10, making it four out of his past five games that he's shot 50 percent or better. He also added a game-high five assists.
-Schieber scored 11 points on 4-of-6 shooting, while Colbert added nine points and five rebounds and Pegues chipped in with five points and eight boards. Bryant didn't score, but managed seven rebounds, two assists and the big steal late that gave the Jets a shot.
-The thrilling game kept up a streak for the Jets and the Lions, making it five straight games decided by five or fewer points, and three straight decided by two or fewer. It was also the lowest-scoring contest between the two since UAFS won 79-69 on Feb. 2, 2012.
WHAT'S NEXT
The Jets start the second half of the conference season with a road trip to take on Texas A&M International Thursday at 7:30 p.m.
