You can’t miss Reggie Chapman on the hardwood, especially since the ball is frequently in his hands.

Newark didn’t want to miss out on the chance of winning Tuesday’s Little Ten game at Indian Creek and knew its best chance lied in Chapman’s hands. So when officials spotted blood on Chapman’s jersey with 4:57 left to play, he simply swapped jerseys, going from No. 3 to No. 25, after a break in the action.

He then scored seven of his 18 points in his replacement jersey to lead Newark to a 58-55 victory.

“I don’t even know who elbowed me, but I got blood right in my eye going for the ball,” he said. “I was trying to hide it. I wiped it on my shirt, and they (an official) saw it.

Newark coach Kyle Anderson called a timeout to give Chapman time to get checked and switch jerseys. Out of the timeout Logan Schrader scored off a turnover to pull Indian Creek to within 47-45.

Chapman went right back to what he was doing while wearing No. 3, hitting a 3 from the top of the key to give Newark (10-6, 5-0) a 50-45 lead with 3:48 remaining.

His “jelly” – a finger-rolled layup off the glass – with 2:45 left made it 53-48.

“I love jellies, you know, English off the glass,” he said. “I’ve watched Kyrie (Irving) my whole life. I love him. I love making those layups, and it was just instinct at that point.”

Indian Creek (12-4, 2-2) pulled within 55-53 after Jason Brewer made the first of a pair of free throws with 18.3 seconds remaining. He’d miss the second, and Newark’s Austin Reibel grabbed the rebound and got fouled.

Reibel split two free throws with 16.2 seconds left, leaving Schrader an opportunity for a game-tying 3, but it fell short. They fouled Reibel again with 7.6 seconds left.

Reibel made both to seal it at 58-53.

“It feels pretty good,” Reibel said. “It’s a really good team that we came here to play, and we got to make a statement in 1A that we deserve to be a higher seed. Reggie did a lot of not turning the ball over. Whenever the pressure would come, he’d always be fine with it. He ran our plays pretty well. We knocked down shots. We stopped a lot.”

Payton Hueber, who led the Timberwolves with 15 points, skied for a tip-in at the buzzer, but they were still a possession short.

Schrader added 12 points for Indian Creek.

“That’s a huge win.” Anderson said. “I think early in the season, you look at that team as probably the best team in the conference. And obviously the goal is to try to win the conference, so to come out on the road against a team I think can make a run in the postseason, that’s a huge one for us.”

Anderson didn’t hesitate burning the timeout when Chapman’s jersey was bloodied. He’s the leader and does so much.

“He has had to take on a role that is very hard, being kind of one of our leading scorers and the ball-handling playmaker at the same time,” Anderson said. “And that team pressures you the entire time. So all game long for him to control the game like he did and take care of the ball the way he did says a lot.”

And Chapman’s turning it on at the right time.

“He’s really been turning the corner and doing that lately, and we’re going to need him to even do a lot more,” Anderson said. “I’m hoping some of our young guards get more aggressive and step up to take some of that off of him, but for now he’s burdening a lot of that, taking the burden for us so those other guys can kind of finish on the fly and learn on the fly.”

The Norsemen are as well after a rough showing over the holidays, taking 15th place at Plano’s 62nd Christmas Classic.

“We needed a little bit of a come-to-Jesus moment after the tournament, “Anderson said. “We played OK. We just let games slip, and it’s kind of a lack of effort and focus, so those 10 days of practice were really good for us. We kind of reset ourselves. We had a good defensive effort last game and a great defensive effort this game.”