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University of Nebraska - Kearney Athletics

Austin Luger
Paul Pack
66
Winner Neb.-Kearney UNK 16-11,10-8 Mid-America Intercollegiate
64
Newman Newman 9-18,3-14 Mid-America Intercollegiate
Winner
Neb.-Kearney UNK
16-11,10-8 Mid-America Intercollegiate
66
Final
64
Newman Newman
9-18,3-14 Mid-America Intercollegiate
Score By Periods
Team 1 2 F
Neb.-Kearney UNK 33 33 66
Newman Newman 30 34 64

Game Recap: Men's Basketball |

Late Steal Leads to 66-64 Win in Wichita

Kearney, Neb. – Junior guard RJ Pair stole an inbounds pass and made two free throws with 21 seconds left as Nebraska-Kearney held on to beat Newman, 66-64, Thursday night in Wichita.

The Lopers (16-11, 10-8) win a fifth road game and now have a chance to finish the year in a three-way tie for fifth place in the MIAA standings. UNK is at Central Oklahoma (10-17, 7-11) on Saturday to end the regular season; Northeastern State (11-8) has completed its regular season while Washburn (11-7) is at Missouri Western State (11-1 at home) on Saturday.

In its' first-ever trip to Fugate Gym UNK was short-handed as leading scorer and rebounder Morgan Soucie (16.2 points & 6.2 rebounds per game) was unavailable due to injury. The Loper bench responded in a big way to the tune of 22 points and four rebounds with Bellevue redshirt freshman Cedric Johnson having 11 points, seven boards, three assists and two steals in his second collegiate start.

"I'm very proud of them. They found a way to win another nail-biter .... it seems like that's all we play. Obviously it wasn't pretty but I think sometimes the uglier it is the better we like it," UNK head coach Kevin Lofton said. "We have to make it ugly without Morgan. That's a lot of points and toughness we're missing there. He gives us that extra confidence that if things get tight we have a guy we can throw it to that's probably going to get buckets."

UNK led for most of the night and by as many as nine points but NU used a 13-4 run to grab a 63-62 lead with 1:44 to play. The spurt was capped with a steal and dunk by Jet senior star Marshawn Blackmon who finished with 29 points.

"A lot of different guys stepped up. In the first half RJ, Austin and Cedric did a really good job for us and then some of that continued in the second half," Lofton said. "Blackmon is a beast. He's hard to keep off the glass but we held our own for the most part. "

Bellevue senior forward AJ Jackson made a shot in the lane to give the Lopers the lead back but NU rebounded an ensuing shot attempt and that led to two free throws. However senior Juwan Davenport missed the first one and made the second to keep things tied at 64 with 57 seconds left.

Jackson went barreling down the lane, faced a lot of contact and missed a runner that was rebounded by Newman. After a timeout it was time for Pair's heroics. Near mid-court he intercepted a pass and went streaking to the basket. Fouled hard attempting a layup, he made the subsequent freebies. Pair (The Colony, Texas) came into the night as a 73% free throw shooter.

"That (steal) won the game for us. Without that who knows which way it goes. We went from being in the driver's set to a dicey situation," Lofton said. "He did a really good job defensively and he's a really strong midrange player. That's where most of his baskets came from."

Everyone in the gym knew Blackmon would get the next shot and he did. However Iowa senior Kyle Juhl played tough defense and forced him to take a fade away 15-footer that hit the front iron. A scramble for the loose ball went Kearney's way as Texan senior Chase Winchester bounced it off a Jet and it went out of bounds. With four tenths of a second left all UNK did was inbound the ball with a length of the court pass.  

UNK won despite being minus six on the glass and going 10 of 18 at the line. The Lopers overcame that by having four scoring in double figures and tallying 21 points off of 15 NU turnovers. Jackson worked around foul trouble to have a team-high 14 points with Johnson making 4 of 9 shots. He was one of six Lopers to have a three in the win.

"Cedric was a couple of missed layups away from a perfect game. He guarded, didn't turn it over, scored, had some assists," Lofton said. "Really proud of our bench. It was big turnaround from Northeastern State where they outscored us 40-5. They came into tonight and did a much better job."

Coming off the pine Pair and Alliance junior forward Austin Luger had 11 points apiece. Pair made four shots with Luger going 5 of 9 from the field. Pair reached double figures for a fourth time with this being the fifth such effort for Luger.

Blackmon, formerly of Division I Eastern Illinois, went 11 of 20 from the field (0 of 1 threes) and 7 of 7 at the line. He also supplied five rebounds (four offensive) and had six of NU's turnovers. No other Jet was in double figures but eight were in the scoring column.

"Our team can take a punch. We've taken a lot of them throughout the course of the year and we're in the midst of another one with Morgan being out. We've had some setbacks, been knocked flat on our backs but our guys get up and keep fighting," Lofton said. 

UNK is at UCO at 3:30 on Saturday. The 'Chos have won three in a row to now be in a two-way tie for eighth place in the standings.
 
 
 
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