The seventh-rated Tabor College women hosted 16th-ranked Newman University in a rare Monday night outing. In the end, the Jets who ran out of fuel for a 76-72 Bluejays victory.
"It was two really different halves," coach Rusty Allen said. "The first half was wild and undisciplined.
"But in the second half, we accomplished our objective and that was to play tough on both ends, rebound the ball well and get the ball to the rim."
Tabor fell behind by as many as 10 points in the first half before closing to within five points at halftime, 34-29.
After Newman reestablished an eight-point lead at 46-38 at the 15:42 mark, Tabor went on an 11-2 run to take its first lead of the second half, 49-48, with 11:55 left in the game.
The Bluejays went on to lead by as many as 10 points, 72-62, with 1:05 to play, but poor free-throw shooting down the stretch allowed the Jets to remain close and even cut the lead to two points at 74-72 with 12 seconds left. But Stacie Herman calmly sank a pair of free throws with six seconds to play for the final four-point margin of victory.
Herman led the Bluejays with 18 points. Erica Hemmert added 16, Emily Vogts 13 and Donya Anderson 11. Vogts added 10 rebrounds as Tabor won the rebounding battle, 42-31.
The Bluejays made 29 of 67 field goal attempts (43.3 percent), but only two of 11 from the 3-point arc. Tabor hit pn;y 16 of 29 free throws.
Newman made 24 of 63 shots (38.1 percent) from the field but drained 10 of 22 3-point attempts and 14 of 16 free throws.
With the win, Tabor improves to 13-3 for the season while the Jets return to Wichita with a record of 10-5.
