WICHITA, Kan. – On Saturday afternoon, the Newman Jets hosted the Rogers State Hillcats inside Fugate Gymnasium on Senior Day. Rogers State would use a second half surge to spoil Senior Day and defeat the Jets 85-72.

Newman would start off red hot, jumping out to an 8-2 early advantage. Both teams would battle back and forth for most of the first half. Rogers State would take their first lead of the contest at the 10:30 mark as they would go ahead 17-15. The Hillcats would lead by as many as 7 points in the half, but Newman would come back tie the game with 34 seconds left on Tyjil Hereford jumper that made the score 38-38. Rogers State would make a last second basket to take a 40-38 lead into halftime.

In the second half, Rogers State would continue to hold onto the lead, but Newman would eventually tie up the game at 45-45 with 15:58 left in regulation. Both teams would continue to exchange baskets and with the score 60-58 in favor of Rogers State, the Hillcats would go on a 9-2 run to gain separation from the Jets to lead 69-60 with 6:27 left. After a basket by Joel Boyce, Rogers State would go on a 10-2 run to gain a 15 point lead, 79-64 with 3:07 left. Rogers State would hold on late as they would knock down their free throws as they would spoil Newman's Senior Day with a 85-72 win over the Jets.

Newman shot 27-54 from the floor for 50.0 percent, 8-20 from three for 40.0 percent and 10-12 from the free throw line for 83.3 percent. While Rogers State shot 27-57 for 47.4 percent, and 10-23 from 3 for 43.5 percent. The Jets were out-rebounded the Hillcats by 3, 32-29.

Joel Boyce led the Jets in scoring with 19 points and 9 rebounds.  Tyjil Hereford added 15 points in the Jets loss. Jacob Birnbaum had 11 points on 3 of 3 shooting from 3 point range.

Newman will travel to Jefferson City, Missouri to take on Lincoln on Thursday, Feb. 25^th with tip-off at 7:30 PM.