CLAREMORE, Okla. - Newman Men's Basketball began 2023 play with a 77-84 loss to Rogers State on Thursday night despite a 25 point night from Stevie Smith and a 24 point night from Latik Murphy.

Like the most recent game against Emporia State, Newman got out to a hot start and and an early lead. Rogers State would start to make shots and get the score back to within 2 at 13:21 left in the half before taking their first lead just a minute later.

The Hillcats would jump out to as much as a 7 point lead and would end the half up 40-33 over the Jets.

RSU would outscore the Jets off the bench 19-9 in the first half and 42-28 in the game.

The Jets would play from behind the rest of the 2nd half as they struggled to get the deficit under 5 with Rogers State having an answer for every Jet basket. The deficit would grow to 14 before Newman would string together a 7-4 run late into the game to get it within 4 but couldn't get the big break they needed to overcome RSU.

Stevie Smith finished with a season high 25 points, going 5-8 from beyond the arc and Latik Murphy would finish with 24 after shooting 50% from three. Stevie Smith finished with 13 points.

Newman will wrap up their Oklahoma road trip with a visit to Northeastern State this Saturday at 3:30 PM.