WICHITA, Kan. — With a hot hand from beyond the arc, the Newman men's basketball team held on during a comeback attempt to seal a big 84-76 victory over Lubbock Christian Saturday afternoon at Fugate Gymnasium.
KEY SEQUENCE
After seeing a double-digit lead slip away into a two-point deficit, the Jets (13-9, 6-8 Heartland) responded with an 8-0 run to grab the lead right back from the Chaparrals (15-7, 9-5 Heartland). Kevin Bryant's layup tied things up, and a pair of gigantic 3-pointers from Gavin Thurman and Daniel Nwosu put the lead back to multiple possessions, where it stayed the rest of the night.
HOW IT HAPPENED
-The Jets trailed for all of 13 seconds before James Pegues hit a 3-pointer to give the hosts a 3-2 lead with just 56 seconds off the clock. The senior posted eight points in the first three minutes to boost the hosts out to a 10-6 lead, an advantage that stretched to eight after his third triple of the game with 13:58 on the clock.
-A 3-pointer from Thurman pushed the lead to double digits for the first time at 26-16 as the clock ticked under 10 minutes to play, and a Bryant lay-in made it 11 points just three minutes later. A Jarvis Williams basket followed shortly later by two free throws from Nwosu pushed the advantage to 13 with 4:15 left in the half, but the Chaps would cut that lead down to five late in the period.
-The second half started with each team going on spurts, as LCU cut the lead to four before 3-pointers from Thurman and Pegues made it a 10-point game with 16:54 on the clock. With the lead up to 11 just over a minute later, the Chaps responded with a seven-point run that lasted just over a minute to make it 47-43 at the 14:47 mark.
-Nwosu hit a trey a few minutes later to build the lead, and five points from Taylor Schieber and a layup from Nwosu capped off a 15-8 run that pushed the lead back out to 11. The lead stood at 64-53 with seven minutes to play before LCU shot out on an impressive 18-7 run to tie it after the Jets led for over 35 minutes.
-A strong layup from Bryant tied it, and both Jalen Love and Williams drove and kicked to Thurman and Nwosu for the big 3-pointers, the last one coming with 48 seconds left. A long heave from Pegues to Love resulted in an easy dunk on the other end to make it an eight-point game with 11 seconds left and lock up the win.
NOTES
-The Jets got big nights all around, including Pegues, who finished with 14 points on 5-of-6 shooting and a perfect 4-of-4 from beyond the arc. Thurman and Nwosu each had 18 points to lead the team, with Thurman adding five rebounds, two assists and two blocks.
-Seven different Newman players took multiple shots from the field and finished with shooting percentages of at least 50 percent. As a team, the Jets shot 49.2 percent (31-of-63), their best performance since hitting 64 percent against Oklahoma Panhandle on Jan. 9.
-The Jets started out scorching from beyond the arc — hitting 6-of-8 from deep in the first 10:05 — and never considerably cooled down, finishing the game 14-of-31 (45.2 percent) for the game, their second-most makes on the season and their best percentage from 3-point range since the win over OPSU.
- Williams had 14 points on 6-of-11 shooting, helping — with Nwosu — to give Newman a 38-22 advantage in bench points. It's the second straight game the Jets have approached 40 points from nonstarters after collecting 42 in Thursday's win.
WHAT'S NEXT
The Jets split up their three-game stretch at home with a roadtrip to Oklahoma Christian for a 7:30 p.m. game Thursday.
