WICHITA, Kan. – It took five extra minutes, but the Newman men's basketball team escaped with its third overtime victory of the season Thursday evening (Jan. 17) holding off St. Mary's 79-76. The Jets move to 12-5 on the year and improve to 3-2 in the Heartland Conference, while the Rattlers fall to 9-7 on the year and drop to 1-3 in the Heartland.
Early in the first half, Allen Wilson made his first start of the season one to remember drilling two of his three first half triples jumping the Jets to an early 17-12 lead after the Rattlers had just cut the lead down to 11-10. The Jets continued to light things up from outside knocking down two more consecutive treys from Dametrius Walker and Christian DeYoung, extending the Jets lead to eight, 23-15 with 8-minutes left to play in the half.
After having a nine point lead, 28-19 with 4:06 to play in the half, the Rattlers fought back with a 7-0 run trimming the Jets lead down to 30-26 with just under two minutes to play. Walker quickly provided solid minutes off the bench late in the first half responding back with five straight points during a 7-0 Newman run extending the lead back to nine, 35-26 with under a minute to play in the half. A late Newman turnover led to an easy Rattlers bucket to end the half with the Jets leading 35-30.
After having the five point lead trimmed down to 35-32 in the first minute of the second half, DeYoung sparked the Jets scoring six straight extending the lead to 41-34 with 17:14 to play. A minute later senior, Ben Ayre jumped Newman out to their largest lead, 44-34 rattling home his lone three-pointer of the game.
The Jets maintained a two possession lead at the midway point of the second half after a DeAndre Johnson layup stretched the lead back to 51-45. The Rattlers continued to hang around from the midway point on, as getting to the free throw line became a huge part of their second half game plan. After a Blackmon tip in that looked to go off a defensive players hand, extended the Jets lead to 57-53 with 5:11 to play, the Rattlers responded with a 5-0 run gaining their first lead of the contest, 58-57 with 3:24 to play. Johnson continued to find success at the free throw line hitting one of his games eight free throws making it 58-58 with 2:56 to play.
Blackmon gave the Jets a 63-61 lead with 1:13 to play after completing the old fashion three-point play, however the Rattlers fired back with a slam at the other end knotting it back up at 63-63. Late in the shot clock Blackmon put the Jets back in control 65-63 with 40-seconds to play off one of Ayre's eight assists. After forcing a Rattlers turnover with under 30-seconds to play, Ayre missed two free throws with 15-seconds left giving hope to the Rattlers. Forward, Skylar Brooks hit a contested fade away jumper from 15 feet out evening the score at 65-65 with under 2-seconds left. Wilson got a heave from the opposing free throw line that bounced off the rim forcing overtime.
In the extra frame, Johnson put the Jets ahead 69-65 scoring four straight to open the quarter. After the Rattlers cut the Jets lead down to 71-69 with 2:29 to go, Tyjil Hereford drilled a top of the key three-pointer as the shot clock was ticking down extending the Jets lead back out to 74-69. After the Rattlers elected to not foul trailing 76-73 with under 45-seconds left, Hereford came to the rescue again for the Jets hitting a floater inside the paint with 15-seconds left extending the lead back to 78-73. After a Rattlers 3-pointer with 8-seconds left, cutting it back down to 78-76, Ben Ayre converted 1 of 2 from the free throw line putting the Jets ahead 79-76 with 6-seconds left. The Rattlers got off a potential game tying three-pointer that fell short of the rim after Blackmon got a piece of his hand on the shot.
Johnson led the Jets in scoring finishing with 18 points and eight rebounds. Blackmon had a solid second half scoring 12 of his 18 points. Walker added in 11 points in just 13 minutes of playing time.
The Jets will be back in action Saturday afternoon (Jan. 19) against Texas A&M International. Tip-off is scheduled for 3:00 p.m. inside Fugate Gymnasium in Wichita, Kan.
