UTPB fell into an early hole Thursday night and was ultimately unable to recover, dropping its home and Heartland Conference opener to Newman 75-70 in Odessa, Texas.

The Jets (3-1, 1-0) scored the first 11 points of the game Thursday, hitting five of its first seven shots to run out to an 11-0 lead at 16:39.

The Falcons (1-3, 0-1) needed almost as much time to make up the difference later in the half, completely erasing Newman's 11-point lead on 14 straight points on a pair of threes by Giselle Loya, two fast-break layups by Brianna Dominguez, and a pair of baskets by Zeslie Johnson that put UTPB in the lead 19-16 at 10:13 of the first.

Newman rallied back to grab the lead once again and scored six of the last eight points of the half to go into halftime with a 40-38 lead.

UTPB came back once again when Newman went up by seven out of the half, rallying to out-score the Jets 11-2 and get back ahead 49-46 five minutes into the second.

Newman took back possession of the lead on six straight points, taking the lead for good at 13:36 and holding on the remainder of the half.

UTPB was able to get within three points on a 3-pointer by Loya with seven seconds remaining, but ran out of time as Zierra Tjaden hit a pair at the line to put Newman back on top by five for the game's final points.

Locket led the Falcons with a season-high 22 points on 7-of-15 shooting from the field while hitting all seven of her free throw attempts and tied for the game-high with four steals. Loya added 12 points behind a trio of threes and Johnson had 10 points on a 5-of-8 effort from the field.

Alexandra Ciabattoni led all players on the night with 29 points and 12 rebounds for Newman, and Shakeira Copeland contributed 14 points for the Jets.

UTPB stays in Heartland action this weekend, hosting Oklahoma Panhandle State Saturday afternoon at 1 p.m.