JACOB ROTH
rothjd@lopers.unk.edu

The Lopers notched two more wins at home, beating Central Oklahoma 66-49 and Newman University 85-72.

Heading into the games, UNK was sitting at 6-5 in conference play and was on a three-game road losing streak. The players on the team were not happy with that statistic and turned it around.

“We all work hard to be the best version of ourselves to help the team.” said senior guard Chase Winchester. “The chemistry on the team is also a huge part of it. We love playing together.”

Thursday night was the start of the Lopers win streak with a defensive battle with UCO.

The game started with both teams trading the lead until a three-pointer and layup in back to back possessions by Dashon Bell gave the Bronchos a nine-point lead with 7:15 remaining in the first half.

The Lopers continued to play stout defense, whittling down the lead to only five at 31-26 going into the second half of play.

With 14:06 left, UNK trailed by one with a three-pointer from senior Kyle Juhl (Harlan, Iowa) and a layup from Redshirt senior Morgan Soucie (Osawatomie, Kansas).

From that point on it was all Lopers, who continued to pile on a lead despite a few small runs from UCO.

Leading scorer for the Lopers was AJ Jackson (Bellevue, Nebraska) with 21 points, four rebounds, and a block.

Against the Jets of Newman University, the start of the game was very similar to Thursday with the teams trading buckets.

That was until the Lopers pushed their way back to a commanding eight-point lead after the junior transfer Jake Walker (Centerville, Utah) hit a three-pointer with 11:46 remaining in the first half of play.

A pair of jump shots from senior Juwan Davenport one of them being a three, cut into UNK’s lead. With help from his teammates, the Jets retook the lead with 7:54 on the clock.

The Lopers bounced back scoring 19 in six minutes to go into the locker room with a six-point advantage.

Coming out of the half, UNK started out on fire extending their lead to as much as 16.

The Jets were never quite able to recover from the offensive explosion from the Lopers only coming within 11 of UNK for the remainder of the contest.

Walker was 7-11 from behind the arch and scored 25 points to lead the Lopers.

UNK’s (14-8) next matchup is against Lincoln University (7-12) in Jefferson City, Mo at 7:30 p.m. on Thursday, Feb.8.