WICHITA, Kansas (Feb. 21, 2019) – Lubbock Christian University was down by 10 points with 14:13 left to play in the second half, but came all the way back to beat Newman by five, sweeping the season series and winning their fifth straight contest against the Jets.
 
The loss was just the second of the season for Newman in its home gym and dropped the Jets to an identical record as LCU. Both the Chaps and Jets are now 18-8 and 9-5 in Heartland Conference play. They are tied for third place in the conference, but the Chaps hold the tiebreaker with a sweep of the season series.
 
It was the last regular season game on the road for Lubbock Christian this season. They finished with a 4-7 record in true road games, but also went 3-1 in neutral site contests, posting an overall record of 7-8 away from the friendly confines of the Rip Griffin Center.
 
Scoring was slow to start for both teams, and LCU took an early lead with a dunk from Brennen Fowler at the 17:54 mark in the first half. The Chaps held onto to that lead for most of the opening half, going up by as many as five on a layup from Kobe Thompson with 2:33 left in the half.
 
At that point, the Jets took over, putting on a full-court press, forcing the Chaps into four turnovers in the final two minutes and scoring nine straight points to take a four-point lead into the locker room.
 
The Newman run continued into the second half as the Jets score the first six points, completing a 15-0 run overall and pushing the lead to double-digits for the first time on a layup from Juwan Davenport.
 
LCU officially cut the deficit back to single digits with 14:06 left to go after Fowler was fouled in the paint and hit a free throw to cut it down to nine. Fowler finished the game with 26 points, marking his third straight game with at least 20 or more points. The Smyer native also pulled down 13 rebounds for his 13^th double-double of the year and the 38^th of his career.
 
As the Chaps chipped away at the lead, Kentton Williams and Isaac Asrat hit three-pointers, and with 8:17 left in the game, LCU was down by just four. Fowler continued to lead the comeback push, getting a three-point play the hard way with 6:28 left and tying things up on a another bucket in the paint with 5:54 left to play. All told, Fowler scored nine straight points over a span of two minutes as the game was tied up at 60-all.
 
Silas Crisler hit a jumper to put the Chaps on top, and Fowler kept them on top with his second three-pointer of the half with 1:14 to go. After a Newman timeout, Cameron Copley stole the ball and was fouled, hitting a pair of free throws to increase the LCU lead to four.
 
Fowler hit one more free throw and Copley hit two more in the finally 30 seconds to seal the victory.
 
Marshawn Blackmon led Newman with his first double-double of 2019, scoring 29 and puling down 14 rebounds. Fowler led the Chaps, but was helped by Asrat who finished with 18.
 
TURNING POINT
Between the 7:54 and 4:57 marks in the second half, only Brennen Fowler scored points for the Chaps. Fowler hit a free throw, an and-one layup, another layup and capped things off with his first three-pointer of the game to tie the game up at 60-60. LCU took the lead on their next possession and did not trail by more than two points the rest of the way.
 
INSIDE THE NUMBERS
Lubbock Christian shot a respectable 48 percent in the first half, but turned things up in the final 20 minutes, hitting 61.9 percent of their shots in the second half. The second-half surge brought their overall shooting percentage to 54.3 percent. It was the 13^th time this year that LCU shot better than 50 percent, and they are 12-1 in those contests.
 
NEXT UP
Lubbock Christian will return home from a three-game road trip to host Oklahoma Christian on Saturday at 3 p.m. in the Rip Griffin Center.