Box Score 1 |
Box Score 2 Wichita, Kan.—Thursday evening the Aggie men's and women's teams competed in conference contests with the Jets and Lady Jets of Newman University. Both OPSU squads took losses in their games with the OPSU women falling by 20 points (43-63) and the men by a score of 68-82.
The Lady Aggies got down early, landing just two of ten shots from the field in the first period; Newman owned an 18-6 lead after the first ten minutes. OPSU's first six points were put up by
Johlicia Williams, who landed two layups and
Denise Levine, who went two for two at the line.
Switching lineups in the second quarter,
Shaletha Mayberry made a quick three-pointer for OPSU and later added one of two free-throw shots. Neither team had much luck finding the basket as Newman was only able to outscore the Aggies by one points 9-8 in the second period.
At the half the Aggies held a 23.8 percent shooting average and the Lady Jets 27.6 percent. While both teams scored 13 points off second chance shots, the Aggies were down at the boards 10-25 with only one offensive rebound in the opening half. Twelve OPSU player fouls also gave Newman opportunities to put points on the board; the Lady Jets went 10-12 from the line and, with eight team fouls by NU the Aggies only managed three points off six free-throw attempts.
The Aggies won the third period 15-12, putting up two threes, four layups and a fast-break jump shot, along with a pair of free-throws; but Newman still controlled the lead by ten points (39-29) going into the final ten minutes of the game.
The Lady Jets switched into overdrive in the fourth period and outscored the Aggies 24-14. In the final five minutes of the game Newman shooters went seven of seven from the field including two three-point shots; the Aggies went one of five from beyond the arc and gave up 11 points on fouls and turnovers in the fourth period.
Tatyana Bell shared the game-high in scoring with Newman's Bria DeGrate, each with 17 points in the game. Shaunice Robinson earned the only double-double of the game putting up 11 points and a game-high of ten rebounds for the Lady Jets.
Hannah Southard led the Aggies at the boards with six rebounds followed by Mayberry and Williams who finished with five apiece. Overall the Jets hauled in 13 more rebounds than OPSU (44-31) and totaled 14 assists to the Aggies' seven. Bell also matched DeGrate on takeaways as each got off with three steals in the game.
The Aggie men battled from the beginning, taking a four-point lead at 18:12, and grabbing every rebound on both sides of the court to secure a 7-3 lead. Balancing the boards, the Jets then went on a 16-1 tear over the following seven minutes and owned an 11-point lead midway through the first half.
Antonio Manns, Jr. was sent to the line with 7:13 left in the half and, sinking both shots, scored his first two points since the jumper that opened scoring for the Aggies.
Sita Sesay added two more from a fastbreak layup and, after a good jump shot from
Melvin Mitchell, the Aggies had narrowed Newman's lead to four points (17-21) with six minutes remaining.
By the break, the Jets had maintained an eight point advantage with a score of 32-24. During the first half Newman distributed playing time almost evenly between starters and the bench, and all but two players with court time added points to the board; the Aggies, on the other hand, relied heavily on starters with the bench putting up just four points. Mitchell held the game high after twenty minutes of play, scoring seven points for OPSU; two Newman players also earned seven points in the opening half and no players from either team had entered double digits.
As what's come to be standard operating procedure, the Aggies came out of halftime ready to rally.
Zoran Arsenovic opened up with a shot in the paint and drew the foul and added the extra point; Manns got the ball back on a Jets turnover and Arsenovic landed a big three to bring the Aggies within two points after less than a minute had ticked off the clock. At the 17:59 mark, a three-pointer by Manns put OPSU on top by two (36-34); the Aggies edged a five-point lead by 16:03, but the Jets got hot and hit back-to-back threes and went up at the 15 minute mark 42-41. The Aggies went 8-18 from the field for the remainder of the game and committed nine player fouls and five turnovers to help add 14 points for the home team. The Jets ended the night with a 14 point win to improve to 12-9 on the season. The Aggies drop to 8-13 after the loss.
Manns finished out with the high-score for the night totaling 19 points; he added ten rebounds for the hdouble-double and contributed two assists, one block and two steals. Mitchell ended up with the game's second highest number of points with 15 and Arsenovic and
Marquavius Williams each had 11. Mitchell and Williams combined for eight assists, four each, and Mitchell also led with three steals on the night. James Pegues was Newman's leading scorer with 14 points; Gavin Thurman led the Jets with six rebounds and Cortrael Colbert held the game-high in assists with seven. Jalen Love matched Mitchell with three steals.
Overall the teams were evenly matched; both averaging 40 percent from the field. The Aggies went 3-13 from beyond the arc and Newman landed 8-29, separated by 4.5 percent margin in three-point attempts. Averaging 70 percent from the line to Newman's 76.9 percent, the Aggies outscored the Jets 21-20 in free-throws. In total rebounds the Jets only led by +2 (41-39) and, while the Aggies totaled 20 turnovers to Newman's 12, OPSU held a one-point advantage in scoring points off turnovers (19-18). Bench play brought the largest range of difference between the two teams. Newman's bench accounted for almost half of their playing time and combined for more than half of the Jets' total points in the game. The Aggies were outscored 46-4 from the bench, with non-starters playing just twenty percent of the time and zero points scored in the second half.
Both Aggie teams will continue competition on the road this weekend as they meet with Oklahoma Christian University on Saturday, in Oklahoma City. The Lady Eagles currently hold a 10-12 record and five wins in the Heartland Conference; the OC men's team sits 5-16 on the season with three conference wins. OPSU Basketball is back home next week for more conference action with games Thursday, Feb. 11 against Rogers State and Saturday, Feb. 13 against UA-Fort Smith.
