Game #21
Newman Jets (3-17, 3-17 MIAA) at Lincoln Blue Tigers (11-9, 11-9 MIAA)
Thursday, Feb. 25 • 7:30 P.M. Jefferson City, Mo. • Jason Gym
Series Record: NU leads series 8-2 Last Meeting: Feb. 11^th, 2021 LU 80 NU 73 in Wichita, Kan.
Internet Audio: Newmanjets.com/listen Internet Video: themiaanetwork.com/newman
Up Next: at Pittsburg State • Sat. Feb. 27 • 3:30 P.M. • Pittsburg, Kan.

LAST TIME OUT
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.

THE COACHES
RJ Allen is in his fourth season as the head coach and tenth on the staff for the Jets. Allen is 3-17, 3-17 in the MIAA in his fourth season at Newman. Last season under coach Allen, the Jets went 9-19 and 3-16 in the MIAA.  Allen has led Newman to a 34-23 overall record and a 21-11 Heartland Conference record over his first two seasons. Allen won Heartland Conference Coach of the Year honors in the 2017-18 season, he was the first coach to win the award in their first season. Prior to Newman Allen spent 5 season as an assistant coach at Concordia University in St. Paul, Minn.

John Moseley is in his seventh season as the Lincoln Blue Tigers Men's Basketball head coach.  Moseley led Lincoln to four consecutive winning seasons from 2015-2019, marking the first time in 40 years a Blue Tiger team has accomplished that feat. Now entering his seventh season, Moseley has led a resurgence in Blue Tiger basketball that includes the program's first winning season (2015-16) since 2001-02. During the 2015-16 season, the Blue Tigers won 11 MIAA games, matching their total from the previous six years combined, and earned a home victory over Emporia State in the first round of the MIAA Men's Basketball Championship.
 
ABOUT THE JETS
Newman is 3-17 on the season, 3-17 in the MIAA.  Newman is led in scoring by Redshirt Junior guard Joel Boyce at 14.4 points per game.  Boyce also leads the Jets in rebounding at 7.2 rebounds per game.
 
ABOUT THE BLUE TIGERS
Lincoln is 11-9 on the season, 11-9 in the MIAA. Lincoln is led in scoring by Quinton Drayton at 16.6 points per game. Sai Witt leads the Blue Tigers in rebounding at 8.6 rebounds per game.

SERIES HISTORY
This will be the 11th all-time meeting between these schools with the Jets leading the series 8-2 over Lincoln.

LAST TIME VS LINCOLN
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.

UP NEXT
The Jets will travel to Pittsburg, Kansas to take on Pittsburg State on Saturday, Feb. 27^th with tip-off at 3:30 P.M.


LISTEN, WATCH & FOLLOW LIVE
Video streams for all of Newman's regular season contests are available on a pay per view basis on the MIAA Network. Events are available live and is immediately archived for on-demand viewing at the conclusion of the event at www.themiaanetwork.com/newman and on the MIAA Network apps for Amazon Fire TV, Android TV, Apple TV and Roku. Listen along to all of the Newman Jets games on The Jets Audio Network with Blake Cripps on the call at newmanjets.com/listen. You can find all things Newman in the Newman Jets Athletics app available in both the App Store and on Google Play.