WICHITA, Kan. — An offensive outburst late in the first half completely swung momentum in the favor of the Newman men's basketball team, which picked up an 89-73 homecoming victory over Texas-Permian Basin Thursday night in Heartland Conference action at Fugate Gymnasium.
KEY SEQUENCE
There were plenty of exciting sequences for the Jets (15-12, 8-11 Heartland) in a first half that saw it take a seven-point deficit and turn it into a 20-point lead by halftime. The key was a stretch of 3:18 that saw Newman hit seven straight shots from the field, including three from deep, to power a 17-3 run that took it from a six-point lead to a commanding 37-20 advantage over the Falcons (14-13, 9-10 Heartland).
HOW IT HAPPENED
-The opening was fast and furious, as the two teams combined for 18 points in less than four minutes. Four different players netted a field goal for the Jets over that stretch, and Cortrael Colbert hit a free throw to make it 9-9.
-That opening run was followed by nearly two minutes of no scoring, and that was halted as the Falcons began to take control for their only time all night. The guests ran off seven points in a row over the next three minutes to pull out to a 16-9 lead with 11:35 to play.
-The Jets halted that momentum quickly though, as James Pegues nailed a 3-pointer on his team's next possession to start cutting into UTPB's lead. A single free throw from the Falcons followed that, but it was the only point they would get over a span of eight minutes as Newman outscored them 22-1 over that period.
-Pegues made it six straight points with a free throw and a layup over the next two-plus minutes, and the Jets took the lead for good on a 3-pointer out of Christian DeYoung off a feed from Jarvis Williams. That made the score 18-17 with 8:31 to play in the first half, and the hosts weren't done yet.
-The Newman lead kept climbing, as 3-pointers from Williams, Nwosu and Kevin Bryant preceded three straight fastbreak flushes for the Jets, as Pegues laid one in and threw one down off a dish from Colbert, and Gavin Thurman closed the run with another feed from Williams.
-The lead climbed to 20 by the end of the first half, and shot as high as 32 at 59-27 with 16:44 left in the second period before the Falcons began to figure things out and the Jets' white-hot shooting began to regress to the mean. UTPB managed an 18-point run of its own to suddenly make it 59-45 with 13:12 to go.
-While Newman maintained a double-digit lead for much of the time and never saw the game get closer than eight points, both sides had their moments in the second half. The Jets powered back out to a 70-47 advantage after a pair of Travis Matthews layups, but the Falcons sucked that back down to an eight-point lead with 3:09 left before the hosts sealed the deal at the free throw line.
NOTES
-Pegues finished with 21 points — his third straight 20-point effort — on 9-of-13 shooting. The nine made field goals are a season-high for the senior, who also pulled in six rebounds.
-Three others hit double digits in scoring, including Thurman, who earned his fourth double-double of the season with 11 points and 10 rebounds. Colbert went for 13 points and added seven rebounds, while Williams chipped in 12 and had a game-high four assists.
-The Jets shared the ball throughout the game, in more ways than one. They assisted on 18 of their 33 made field goals, three off their season high, and they also saw eight players take at least five shots, eight of the 11 players who saw time hit a 3-pointer, and five players dished out at least three assists.
-The middle stretch of the game was dominated by the Jets — including senior Easton Julian winning homecoming king at halftime. Between the 11:35 mark of the first half, when the Falcons scored to go up 16-9, to the 16:24 mark of the second, when the guests cut it to a 30-point game, the Jets went on a 50-11 run. During that stretch, the hosts shot 19-of-27 (70.4 percent) from the field and 11-of-16 (68.8) from 3-point range while UTPB hit just 3-of-22 (13.6) from the floor and 3-of-15 (20.0) from deep.
-Despite the victory, and the possibility of still tying the Falcons for seventh in the final conference standings, the Jets will be the seventh seed in next week's Heartland Conference tournament, as tiebreakers would slot UTPB ahead of the Jets.
WHAT'S NEXT
The Jets compete in their final home game of the season Saturday, with the Senior Day contest beginning at 3 p.m.
