Box Score OKLAHOMA CITY (Feb. 16, 2017) – Against the best team in the Heartland Conference, Oklahoma Christian was right there on Thursday night, like the Eagles have been against most league foes this basketball season.

But as has happened all too often, OC ended up on the wrong end of a close one. John Moon's last-second basket forced overtime but the Eagles eventually lost 98-94 to Rogers State in the Eagles' Nest.

OC (8-15, 3-12 Heartland) has had 11 conference games this season decided by six points (essentially two possessions) or less. The Eagles' record in those games is 3-8. With Thursday's loss, the Eagles remained in ninth place in the league standings, three games behind Newman (Kan.) with three games remaining. The top eight teams qualify for the league's postseason tournament.

"These close losses absolutely sting," OC coach Cory Cole said. "Our guys made some big-time plays the last minute of regulation to force overtime. … It just shows the resiliency of the guys. They fought back and put the game in overtime and made some plays in overtime and we had a shot to win it."

The Eagles did a lot of things right against Rogers State (19-7, 12-4). OC outrebounded the Hillcats 34-31, shot a strong 51.9 percent from the field (including 47.6 percent from 3-point range) and had all five starters score in double figures. But they also had 20 turnovers that negated a lot of their hard work in other areas.

"Our last three games have really felt like we played our best three games of the season," Cole said. "We just haven't won the games. The common thread, the common theme, has been our turnovers. Twenty turnovers tonight is 20 less chances to shoot the ball. When you get down to a four-point, two-possession game, it's a big, big difference. I've got to be better in getting our guys to value the ball."

It was tight all the way, with neither team leading by more than seven points. The Eagles and Hillcats swapped the lead 15 times and were tied 15 other times. OC's biggest lead was at 52-47 after a layup by Moon with 14:27 left, but Rogers State rallied and led by five in the closing minutes before OC answered back.

A 3-pointer by Dorian Lopez with 1:23 left in regulation put the Eagles up 78-77, but J.D. Tisdale – who poured in 30 points – hit a 3-pointer with 1:00 remaining to put Rogers State back ahead. A blocked shot by Moon – one of his six on the night – with 20.2 seconds left gave OC a final chance to tie.

Marcus Mathieu missed a short jumper but Moon somehow got a hand on the ball and tapped it enough to make it crawl over the rim with 1.4 seconds left to tie the game at 80-80.

Rogers State went up 87-81 on Matt Lea's hook shot with 2:36 left in OT. OC pulled within 89-87 with 1:26 left on a 3-pointer by Keilan Horton, who led the Eagles with 23 points, but Baron Smith Jr. (who scored 20 points) went 5-of-6 at the free-throw line for the Hillcats in a 25-second span and Rogers State was up 94-87 with 31 seconds left.

But Horton made two free throws with 26.1 seconds left, and after a steal, Elijah Strickland made a 3-pointer to pull OC within 94-92. Then things really got crazy.

Two free throws by Tisdale extended the Hillcats' lead to four with 14.4 seconds left, but Horton's basket with :06 remaining cut it to two. Lopez – who scored 21 points and went 4-of-6 from 3-point range – stole the inbounds pass by Tisdale in the corner and had an open 3-point attempt, but it fell just short and Johnathon Buckley rebounded for Rogers State. Buckley's two free throws with 00.8 of a second left sealed the win for the Hillcats.

Strickland scored 17 points, while Mathieu had 13 and five assists for OC. Moon, OC's 7-foot senior center, had 12 points, six rebounds and tied his career high for blocked shots. In doing the latter, he broke OC's career blocks record of 229, which Micah Miles set from 2004-07. Moon now has 232 career blocks, which also is the Heartland record.

"That's huge company," Cole said. "I was here when Micah Miles was doing it. At the time, I thought he was the best ever (at OC) to play that position defensively. To see that John's already shattered that record with a few games left to go, and just seeing John on a day-to-day basis, it's impressive. Tonight, John's blocks were off of movement, which is hard to do when you're guarding an undersized, tricky release point, and John still was clutch.

"It seems like every other day he's breaking a record and that's a tribute to him just sticking him and gutting it out and playing at a high level and carrying his team."

Moon also increased his career scoring total to 1,830 points, moving past Doug Bradley (1,819 points from 1982-86) into seventh place on OC's all-time list.

OC will honor five seniors – Moon, Horton, Luis Lopez, Zach Norris and program assistant Zak Wilson – during a ceremony before Saturday afternoon's game with Arkansas-Fort Smith.

Cory Cole discusses the game: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NXpN9rFJC3o&feature=em-upload_owner