WICHITA, Kan. – On Thursday night, the Newman Jets hosted the Lincoln Blue Tigers in a rescheduled contest inside Fugate Gymnasium. Lincoln take the lead early and would never relinquish it as they would hold off the Jets, 80-73.

Lincoln would take an early 9-2 lead, before Newman would make a run of their own, scoring the next 6 points to cut the Blue Tigers lead to 9-8 with 13:40 left in the first half. Both teams would trade baskets after that and with the score 19-19, Lincoln would go on a 13-2 run to lead 32-21 with 3:45 left in the first half. The Jets would cut the deficit down to 9 with a little under two and a half minutes left in the opening half. Lincoln would end the first half on a 7-3 run to take a 39-26 lead going into the intermission.

In the second half, the Jets would battle back, cutting the Blue Tiger led to just 5 points with 10:54 remaining. Both teams would begin trading baskets and the Jets would make it a one possession game 58-56 with 7:40 left after Branden Bunn made a 3 point basket. The Blue Tigers would have an answer for every push the Jets made. Lincoln would grow their lead back up to 9 points 75-66 with 1:22 left.  Newman would try late for a comeback but it would end up short as Lincoln would come to Wichita and defeat the Jets by a final score of 80-73.

Newman (2-14, 2-14) shot 25-58 from the floor for 43.1 percent, 9-24 from three for 37.5 percent and 14-21 from the free throw line for 66.7 percent. While Lincoln (9-8,9-8) shot 31-57 for 54.4 percent, and 6-15 from 3 for 40.0 percent. The Jets were out-rebounded the Hornets by 5, 35-30.

Ian Lee led the Jets in scoring with 18 points and 2 rebounds.  Joel Boyce had 15 points and 5 rebounds in the Jets loss.

Newman will travel to Edmond, Okla to take on Central Oklahoma on Saturday, Feb. 13th with tip-off at 3:30 PM.