SAN ANTONIO — Erasing a late deficit to force overtime, the Newman men's basketball team wasn't able to hold off a charge in the extra session as St. Mary's earned a 97-86 victory in Heartland Conference action Saturday afternoon.
KEY SEQUENCE
The Jets (6-11, 4-4 Heartland) scored six of the final seven points of the game to head to overtime against the Rattlers (7-11, 5-4 Heartland), and were within two with 1:11 left in the extra period. A 3-pointer from St. Mary's pushed that lead to five, and a run of six straight free throws put the game on ice.
HOW IT HAPPENED
-Taylor Schieber's 3-pointer two minutes in boosted the Jets to an early 5-2 lead, an advantage the guests held for over 13 minutes. The senior's three free throws after being fouled on a shot from deep made it a 20-11 game, and Christian DeYoung's trey at the 9:10 mark pushed that lead out to 23-13.
-With the game tied at 30, a Schieber jumper, followed in the next two possession by a three-point play out of DeYoung and a Daniel Nwosu Jr. jumper pushed it out to a 39-32 advantage. Pairs of free throws out of Nwosu in the final minutes kept it at a seven-point lead at the break.
-Newman held that lead for a large portion of the second half as well, including Schieber bagging a layup and Nwosu converting a steal into a fastbreak score making it 47-40 two minutes in. Nwosu also added a 3-pointer less than two minutes later to push that lead to eight.
-A run by the Rattlers bumped them into the lead with 13:35 on the clock, and while DeYoung hit a jumper to momentarily put the Jets back in front, St. Mary's went ahead 30 seconds later. They held that lead until the final seconds, as Nwosu buried a 3-pointer with six seconds on the clock to tie it up at 77-all and send it to overtime.
-Free throws from Daniel Green gave Newman an early lead in overtime, but the Rattlers went up thanks to a 6-0 run over the next 80 seconds. A tip in by Green, followed a minute later by two more free throws, tied it at 83-83 with 2:30 to go, but the hosts broke out from there to finish off the game.
LEADERS
Newman
Points: Nwosu 32. Rebounds: Green 12. Assists: 5 with 1. Steals: Nwosu 2. Blocks: Schieber, Green 1.
St. Mary's
Points: Yanni Wetzell 29. Rebounds: Dimitri Peterson 18. Assists: Will Ferguson 7. Steals: Wetzell, Benavides 2. Blocks: Peterson 3.
NOTES
-Nwosu kept up his current hot streak, pouring in a career-high 32 points. The senior shot 8-of-15 from the field, 4-of-7 from deep, and added another big game from the stripe, going 12-of-15.
-The Heartland Conference remains as competitive as ever, with each of the top eight teams sitting at .500 or better in league play. The Jets are 4-4, but are just two games out of second place with 10 games still to play.
WHAT'S NEXT
The Jets begin the second half of their Heartland Conference schedule on the road, heading to Oklahoma Christian Thursday.
