FORT SMITH, Ark. – The Newman men's basketball team needed an extra period Thursday evening (Feb. 7) as the Jets overcame a 20 point second half deficit extending their road winning streak to two straight in a thrilling 89-83 win over Arkansas-Fort Smith. The Jets improve to 16-6 on the year and improve to 7-3 in Heartland Conference play.

The Jets led three times early on in the game, despite shooting 40 percent from the field in the first eight minutes. The last lead of the first half for the Jets occurred at the 12:23 mark when a DeAndre Johnson layup put the Jets up 13-11. Tim Troussel laid in a layup at the 7:02 mark of the first half pulling the Jets within seven at 22-15, but the Lions went on a 16-6 run to close out the half and take a 38-21 lead at halftime. The Jets went over the final three minutes without points to end the first half. Newman shot a cool 24.2 percentage from the field in the first half.

Falling behind by 20 points just 1:37 into the second half, the Lions continued to shoot lights out from the field. Quickly the Jets improved on their shooting from the field making 3-of-5 field goals, led by Cameron Goldfinch's seven points trimming the margin to single digits at 46-40 with 14:10 remaining, during the 14-1 Jets run.

After being held without a field goal for 4:39 during Newman run, Fort-Smith brought its lead back to 10 by scoring on 2-of-2 from the field since the run, while also adding in a pair of free throws, to lead 54-44 with 11:27 remaining.

With 5:32 left to play after the Lions stretched the lead back to 12 with 5:32 to play, the Jets drew back to within six, as Goldfinch and Ben Ayre converted on a pair of 3-pointers to bring the score to 69-63 with 3:38 left.

The Jets took over in the final three minutes, when Dametrius Walker, Juwan Davenport connected on back-to-back triples cutting the deficit to one with 1:56 to play. After a pair of free throws from Ayre cut the margin to 73-71 with a minute to play, Ayre created one of Newman's 12 steals, set up the tying layup by Marshawn Blackmon with 31-seconds left making it 73-73. With the game on the line, the Lions missed the game winning shot with a second left forcing overtime.

After falling down 75-73 just 15 seconds into the extra frame, the Jets took over the lead for good with 2:37 remaining to play with a 9-0 run lead by two Blackmon layups giving the Jets the 82-75 advantage. The Jets put the game away down the final 41 seconds knocking down 7-of-10 free throws completing the 20 point come from behind win 89-83.

Newman finished shooting 39.7 percent (27-of-68) from the field in the game, including a 51.7 percent (15-of-29) mark in the second half and 66.7 percent (4-of-6) in the overtime period. The Jets also outscored the Lions 52-35 in the second half and 16-10 in the extra period, while only giving up 9 turnovers throughout the game's entirety.

Ben Ayre led the Jets in scoring finishing with 19 points in 34 minutes of work. Walker led the Jets bench with 18 points and five steals. Goldfinch extended his string of double digit scoring performances with 14 points. Johnson collected his third double-double of the season with 12 points while pulling down a career high 14 rebounds.