The Lincoln women’s basketball team only led Thursday night for a total of 1:21.
But the Blue Tigers led at the final buzzer, picking up their first MIAA win of the season by a final score of 51-50 against the Newman Jets at Jason Gym.
The game was dominated by the Jets for a majority of the 40 minutes, but the Blue Tigers took their first lead with 1:32 left in the game after Aliyah Bello knocked down a 3-pointer from the right corner, making the score 49-48.
Newman was able to jump back in front after Makayla Hayes scooped up an offensive rebound and made a reverse layup with just more than five seconds left in the game. Lincoln coach Drea Mize called a timeout to draw up a potential game-winning play.
After the timeout, the ball ended up in Niyah Jackson’s hands at the top of the key. Jackson drove past her defender and made the running floater over Newman center Britney Ho with :01.6 on the clock, giving the Blue Tigers a 51-50 lead and sending Jason Gym into a frenzy.
“That felt really great, I am just so happy,” Jackson said. “My team needed me, so I put them on my back and did what I do.”
Mize knew exactly where she wanted the ball to end up on the team’s final possession, and that was in the hands of the player she brought with her from Central Florida College when she got the head-coaching job at Lincoln in April 2020.
“Niyah Jackson, ever since I’ve had her in junior college ball, has had ice in her veins,” Mize said. “So, if anyone is going to get that last shot, it’s going to be her. We cleared it out and we made sure our shooters were cleared out to give her room. Ayreona Carter posted up real hard to attract enough attention. Anytime you can get Niyah one-on-one, especially with having Kylie Bernskoetter posted up in the strong side corner, we are going to take that all day, every day.”
The Jets had one final opportunity to win the game with an in-bounds play from half-court. They were able to get a really good look with Hayes being left alone behind the 3-point line on the right wing. Hayes’ 3-point attempt banged off the back of the rim and fell to the floor, securing Lincoln’s first conference win of the season.
“We did a lot of things wrong tonight and hats off to Newman for taking us out of sorts there in the first half, but I am so proud of the team’s grit,” Mize said. “Anytime you can see your team battle the way that they did after doing as poorly as we did to start this one. I am just really happy with how we battled.”
Lincoln (5-10, 1-8 MIAA) was able to overcome a very poor first half. The Blue Tigers shot 1-of-15 from the field in the first quarter and were only able to score three points in the opening frame.
Lincoln saw an increase in scoring in the second quarter, but still trailed Newman (2-13, 0-9 MIAA) 23-16 heading into the break. The Blue Tigers went into the locker room shooting 20 percent (6-of-30) from the floor and 10 percent (1-of-10) from the free-throw line.
“At halftime, I told the team that we need to let our defense create our offense,” Mize said. “I thought we did a really good job of that in the second half. I thought Niyah did a really good job of finding the open man when the defense collapsed down on her and it created a lot of open looks for us down the stretch.”
Lincoln shot the ball from the floor better in the second half, but still struggled to knock down its free throws. It finished the game 3-of-16 from the stripe and left many points sitting at the line.
“That’s atrocious,” Mize said. “That is something that off the court and out of practice that they can take care of. That is going to be an adjustment going forward.”
Jackson led the way for the Blue Tigers, scoring a season-high 14 points while dishing out four assists and adding six rebounds.
“She is still getting the hang of things because she has had injury troubles this year,” Mize said. “She battles, the kid battles. She’s all of 5-foot-4 and 100 pounds, but she does everything that any coach could want, especially when she is even 75 percent healthy.”
The win gives Lincoln some momentum heading into its next home game against Central Oklahoma (10-6, 6-4 MIAA) at 1 p.m. Saturday. Mize knows that her team is going to have to play better if they want to pick up the win against the Bronchos.
“I am going to watch some film tonight, but I am going to let this one soak in for the next hour,” Mize said. “We just got to be ready to battle and we have to have a better first half.”