UAFS junior guard
Marcus Wallace scored 16 of his team-high 25 points in the second half to spark a second-half comeback by the Lions, who rallied to beat the Newman Jets 73-68 in Heartland Conference action on Saturday at Fugate Gymnasium in Wichita, Kan.
The Lions went 2-0 on their road trip, beating Oklahoma Panhandle State 102-82 on Thursday night at Oscar Williams Fieldhouse in Goodwell, Okla. UAFS swept its third conference series of the season, too, having beaten Newman 98-84 on Saturday, Dec. 31, at the Stubblefield Center.
UAFS (15-10, 8-5) is tied for fifth in the conference with Texas A&M International (14-9, 8-5), and the two teams are two games behind conference leader Dallas Baptist (15-7, 9-3). Rogers State (16-7, 9-4), Lubbock Christian (14-8, 8-4) and St. Edward's (16-9, 8-4) are tied for second.
The Lions trailed by 10 points at halftime, but Wallace provided just the spark the Lions needed in the final 20-minute stretch.
Wallace drained back-to-back 3-pointers in a span of 33 seconds – the first of which put the Lions ahead 62-60 with 5:40 to play and the second of which pushed them ahead 65-60 with 5:07 left.
Newman twice got within one point in the final five minutes – the last time 69-68 on a layup by Daniel Green with 36 seconds left. UAFS made its free throws in the waning seconds to seal the win, though.
Junior
Ladarius Coleman sank a pair of free throws with six seconds left to push the Lions' lead to three points (71-68) and Wallace made two free throws with three seconds left to cap his best scoring performance as a Lion.
UAFS shot 36 percent from the field (24 of 67) – it was 10-of-25 shooting from 3-point range – and shot 65 percent from the free-throw line (15 of 23). Wallace was 8-of-13 shooting from the field – he was 5-of-9 shooting from 3-point range – and 4-of-7 shooting from the free-throw line.
