CLAREMORE, Okla – Newman Men's basketball opened up their 2022-23 regular season campaign on Friday afternoon in the Holiday Inn Express Regional Challenge, hosted by Rogers State in Claremore, Oklahoma.
The Jets started off the game hot and got out to a 21-9 lead early with
Khaleem Bennett's 3-point jump shot making the Golden Bears trail from behind 12. Bennett led the Jets in the first half with 9.
NU didn't hold back as
Stevie Strong got Newman's lead to 15 and gave the Jets a momentum wave that pushed Concordia St. Paul further away from the Jets lead midway through the first half. Newman had no intention of giving up the lead as C.S.P made it interesting late into the half and got the score within 4 late in the half but a
Sam Somerhalder layup with 12 seconds left got the Jets lead back up to 6 and gave NU 41 going into the half, the most they've scored in the first half in their 3 games (Wichita State, MoState EXH) played so far this season.
Newman led for 18 minutes in the first half after taking the lead at 7-4 at the 17:50 mark in the half.
That lead was something Newman held onto tightly as they fought off any Golden Bear comeback the rest of the game as C.S.P didn't lead the rest of the game.
Stevie Strong was the driving force in the 2nd half for the Newman offense, which scored 40 points in the first 13 minutes of the second half off 50% shooting from the field. The Golden Bears had no answer for Strong, who tallied his 29th and 30th point of the game to extend the Jets lead to 22 late into the game before finishing with a career high of 40. The 40 points put Strong tied for 2nd in the single game scoring record, 6 away from breaking the record (Taylor Schubert, 45, 2017).
"I thought Stevie was phenomenal today. He made big shots when we needed them. There were a few other guys that stepped up and played well for us too.
Khaleem Bennett and
Sam Somerhalder gave us good minutes as well." Head Coach
R.J. Allen said of the team's performance tonight. Somerhalder finished the game grabbing 3 offensive rebounds for NU and helped the Jets with 6 points. "I was pleased with our effort." said Allen.
The 97 points was the most for Newman in a season opener since 2004.
Khaleem Bennett finished the game with 11 points and gave the rim no mercy with a put back dunk at the 14:20 mark of the 2nd half that increased Newman's lead to 14. Bennett shot 50% from the field in 27 minutes of playing time.
Latik Murphy finished 2nd in points for the Jets with 12.
Stevie Smith finished with 10 and was 2-5 from 3 point range.
Newman defeated Concordia St. Paul 97-85 and earns their first season opener win since 2017 when they defeated Cameron 87-85 in OT.
NU shot 45.9% from the field in the first half and 47.2% in the 2nd and finished 9-27 from the arc. They outshot the Golden Bears from the paint 42-28 and 9-1 in second chance points.
The Jets (1-0) will have a quick turnaround as they are back for their final game of the Holiday Inn Express Regional Challenge tomorrow against Southwest Minnesota State at 12 PM.
