WICHITA, Kan. — The Newman men's basketball team got back on track Wednesday night (Feb. 27) with a strong 75-64 performance late. The Jets improve to 19-8 on the year and 10-5 in conference play securing a third or fourth place seeding in next week's Heartland Conference Tournament held in Tulsa, Okla.
The Jets could not have asked for a better start opening the game shooting 5-of-5 from the field, jumping out to an 11-4 lead after an 11-2 run three minutes into the contest. Maintaining a three point lead over the next four minutes, sophomore Cameron Goldfinch came right off the bench providing a spark drilling his lone trey of the night starting what would lead to a 7-0 Newman run giving Newman their first double-digit lead of the game 19-9 with 11:10 to play in the half.
Goldfinch jumped the Jets out to their largest lead of the game 25-13 with 6:31 left in the first half after sinking a pair of free throws giving him nine first half points. The Hillcats continued to claw their way back outscoring the Jets 18-9 in the final 6-minutes of the first half trimming the Newman lead to just three, 34-31 at the break.
Marshawn Blackmon started what would be a strong second half for the junior, scoring the first four Newman points giving some cushion to the lead 38-33 just 1:39 into the half. Rogers State's Saint Hilaire continued to keep the deficit in reach scoring 8 of the first 11 Hillcats points just 6:39 into the second half.
The Newman lead would vanish as Rogers State took their second lead of the game 43-42 with 12:44 to play, their first lead since 2-0 at the 19:21 mark of the first half. The two teams would exchange the lead three different times over the next 3:05 until Ben Ayre scored seven of the next 11 Newman points during an 11-2 run giving Newman the reigns back for good 58-50 with 6:44 to play.
RSU would trim the Newman lead down to five, but Blackmon and Ayre continued to close each Hillcats run hitting big shots completing the regular season split with the Hillcats 75-64.
Marshawn Blackmon posted his second consecutive double-double and eighth double-double of the year finishing the game with 20 points and 12 rebounds in just 27-minutes. Dametrius Walker added in 14 points and two steals. Ayre finished the game with 13 points all of which coming in the second half while dishing out four assists. Cameron Goldfinch added 11 points off the bench and hauled in seven rebounds in 24-minutes of action.
The Jets ranked No. 10 in the latest South-Central Regional Rankings will be looking to complete a season series sweep over the No. 6 ranked team in the Region Dallas Baptist on Saturday afternoon (Mar. 2) in the regular season finale. Tip-off is scheduled for 2:00 p.m. inside the Burg Center in Dallas, Texas.
