By Anna Corbett-Neal, Co-Editor-in-Chief
For a while on Halloween night, Newman’s men’s basketball team was beating the Division I Kansas State Wildcats on their own turf.
And though the game ultimately ended in defeat for the Jets, who went down 90-112 in the exhibition game at Bramlage Coliseum in Manhattan, Newman made K-State fight for it.
One of the headlines from the night: Newman players scored 18 three pointers against KSU on 37 attempts. Sophomore Jayden Schoen and senior Brandon Wilson each made five-three pointers, which helped Newman take an early 19-11 lead.
In fact, if the game had not been an exhibition game, Newman would have broken a record for three pointers scored against Kansas State in a single game that was set in 2021 when Baylor made 17.
“We have a good group of guys,” Wilson said after the game. “I think we're an older squad. We have pretty versatile pieces. Now, it's just about putting it together to get ready for our actual season. But I think today was a good test to see where we are as a squad.”
The crowd was lively throughout the game, and it included a tiny but mighty Newman contingency. Some students rode to the game in a van that was organized by the Athletic Department. Each three-point basket in the game earned a roar from Jets fans.
What was it like to play in such a big stadium against a Division I team?
“It was surreal,” said Wilson, who led the team in scoring with 18 points. “This is something that every hooper dreams about, playing on the big stage, playing in the big stadium… I think a lot of our guys stepped up to the plate, and we performed better than most people would have thought we would have.”
Head basketball coach R.J. Allen said that a big exhibition game was good for his players.
“It's always a great opportunity for our kids,” he said. “They spend the whole year watching these guys play on TV… Sharing the floor with a Big 12 team is really cool because these guys work so hard.”
Allen said that he wants the team to learn from the things that worked and didn’t and take those lessons into the regular season.
“It's easy to get up for a game like this,” he said. “The challenge is you take your mistakes and shortcomings, and you practice them, and you continue to get better every single day.”
The last time Newman’s men’s team played Kansas State was in 2014, when the Wildcats defeated the Jets 83-56. The Jets were still in the Heartland Conference at the time.
PHOTO: Dannicka McGrath, Photographer
