by Athletic Communations
Northwestern Oklahoma State University men’s basketball dropped a tough loss against out-of-conference opponent Newman University Saturday afternoon in Wichita, Kan. Newman’s record improved to 3-1 while the Rangers dropped to 1-2.
The Rangers traveled for their first away game against the Jets and struggled to find a rhythm. Newman, who has shown talent this year pulled to an early lead and never let go as they snatched the win with a final score of 65-53. Junior transfer
Parrish Hewitt led the team with 16 points, six rebounds, and went 10-13 from the free-throw line.
Newman started off quick and fast as they shot to an early 10-point lead and continued to tack onto that lead throughout the first half. Two made free-throws from Hewitt got Northwestern back to within eight points with 9:23 left in the first half, but the Jets took off from there. Newman was able to pull away to an 18-point lead as the headed into halftime, with a score of 40-22.
The Rangers defense improved tremendously in the second half of the game.The Jets reached their highest lead of 19-points with fifteen minutes left in the second half. The Black-and-Red were unable to cut closer than 10-points off the Jet’s lead throughout the whole second half despite their best efforts in the last few minutes of the game.
Notable players include Hewitt who was mentioned earlier as well as returner Jack Peck who had 14 points, as he went 2-2 from the three-point line and 4-6 from the field. Jaedon Whitfield and Nate Bailey earned eight and seven points respectively in the match-up with Whitfield tallying seven rebounds of his own.
Northwestern will start Great American Conference play against top ranked Southern Nazarene on Thursday Nov. 21.