by WICHITA, Kan. – The Lincoln men’s basketball team opened 2020 in winning fashion on Saturday (Jan. 4), as Cameron Potts’ layup with four seconds remaining gave the Blue Tigers a 74-72 overtime win against Newman.
The victory, Lincoln’s first over Newman, improved the Blue Tigers to 5-7 on the season and 2-1 in MIAA play. It was also LU’s first win in its initial road MIAA game of a season since 2016-17, and the victory evened Lincoln’s record to 1-1 in overtime games in 2019-20.
Lincoln had a two-point lead at halftime, but trailed Newman (6-7, 0-4 MIAA) by six with 9:47 remaining. A trey by Bansi King (Oneida) would later tie the game at 53, and another three-pointer from King gave Lincoln back the lead with 5:21 to play. The contest became a back-and-forth affair from that point, with the teams combining for six lead changes and four ties through the rest of regulation.
Potts, who led Lincoln with 17 points while tallying seven boards, five assists and four steals, sent the game into overtime by hitting a pair of free throws with 26 seconds remaining. Newman never got off a shot attempt after those free throws, but made a pair of shots of its own at the line early in overtime to once again take a two-point advantage. The entire game was back-and-forth, with the two programs combining for 21 lead changes and 16 ties in 45 minutes of work.
A jumper by Marcel Burton followed by a fast-break layup from Potts gave LU its first lead of overtime, 68-66, but the score was evened once again on a layup by the Jets with 2:57 to play. Lincoln briefly retook the lead with a free throw, but the Jets responded with a 4-0 run to go ahead 72-69 with 1:33 remaining.
It was once again Potts who squared the game up, as he converted an old-fashioned three-point play to knot the score up at 72. After Marcus Cohen grabbed a defensive rebound, Potts found the basket one more time for the game-winning score with four ticks left on the clock, and the Blue Tigers hung on for their second-straight win.
King finished with 16 points, Burton added 13 and seven rebounds, and Jordan Notch rounded out Lincoln’s double-digit scorers with 12 points, five boards and a block. L’Kielynn Taylor had a team-high eight rebounds to go with six points, and DJ Ward contributed nine points to the winning cause.
Zack Fields made a free throw to close the scoring and also tallied three assists and two steals. Cohen had three rebounds and DaMani Jarrett had one as LU picked up its second-straight MIAA win.
