Box score

CLAREMORE, Okla. (Jan. 17, 2008) – Playing its third-straight road game, Oklahoma Christian fell 68-54 to Rogers State (Okla.) Thursday night. The loss was OC's fourth consecutive.

The Eagles fell to 5-10 on the year and 2-6 in Sooner Athletic Conference play. The conference-newcomer Hillcats moved to 9-5 overall and 4-4 in the SAC.

"We just had too many key guys play sub-par tonight," OC head coach Dan Hays said. "We hustled and worked hard, but we just have to have more guys step up. RSU is a very talented team who really got after us defensively. We just have to play better."

RSU led early on Thursday before four straight John Powell points knotted the score. The Reed, Ark., native's putback with 15:37 on the clock tied the game at 4-4.

Kyle Tefft drew the Eagles within two at 8-6 with 14:09 on the clock. The Hillcats then went on a 9-3 charge to take a 17-9 lead by the 12:06 mark.

RSU built the lead to nine on two occasions, but OC cut the edge down to four thanks to five quick points from Jeff Crocker.

The freshman buried a three pointer with 4:01 on the clock, then scored off the glass in transition with 2:59 left to make it 24-20.

The athletic Hillcats bounced back though and closed the half on an 8-0 run.

With less than a second remaining in the half, RSU inbounded the ball to Eric Young who drilled a baseline fade-away jumper to up the edge to 32-20 at intermission.

OC and RSU played even over the second half's opening three minutes. The Hillcats then went on a 6-1 run and upped their lead to its largest of the night at 43-27 on a Sylvester Spicer alley-oop dunk with 15:28 left.

The Eagles narrowed the gap to 13 three times on Jason Taylor scores over the next five minutes. Taylor nailed a triple in the corner with 10:24 left to make it 52-39.

After nearly three minutes of scoreless action from both sides, Taylor connected again in the paint to bring OC within 11 at 52-41 with 7:49 remaining.

The Eagles and Hillcats traded two scores before OC's Darrick Matthews rebounded his own miss and converted a conventional three-point play to make it 58-50 with 4:14 left.

RSU's Roderick Rodgers scored on the other end to make it 60-50. Then Matthews again drew the Eagles within eight with a running floater in the lane at the 3:22 mark. 

But OC would not come any closer as RSU outscored the Eagles 8-2 to close the game.

Taylor finished with a game-high 23 points, 18 coming in the second half. The sophomore was 9-of-15 from the field and 2-of-2 from three-point range.

No other Eagle found double figures with Powell and Tefft next on the list with eight points apiece. Four Hillcats were in double figures led by Young's 15 points. 

The Eagles return home on Saturday to play John Brown (Ark.). The women's contest tips at 6 p.m. followed by the men's game at 8 p.m.