Hillcats Maintain No. 25 National Ranking

Senior Sasha Barnes and the Hillcats maintain their No. 25 ranking. (Photo by Ryan Weaver)

KANSAS CITY, Mo. - The Rogers State women’s basketball team held steady at No. 25 in the 10th edition of the 2011 – 12 NAIA Division I Women’s Basketball Coaches' Top 25 Poll, the national office announced Monday.

The Hillcats maintained their No. 25 ranking after a 2-0 week, knocking off No. 15 Southern Nazarene 71-63 at the Claremore Expo on senior night. RSU rounded out the regular season on Saturday with a 78-50 win over USAO.

Three Sooner Athletic Conference foes were recognized in the poll. For the fifth straight week, Oklahoma City University was unanimously selected as the No. 1 team in the NAIA.  Lubbock Christian improved two spots, coming in at No. 4 and the Crimson Storm fell one spot to No. 16 with the loss to the Hillcats.

Union (Tenn.) and Freed-Hardeman (Tenn.) remained in the No. 2 and 3 spots for the third-straight poll with 272 and 263 points, respectively.

Westmont (Calif.) and Lee (Tenn.) are tied at No. 5 this week with 240 points each. Westminster (Utah), the Frontier Conference regular-season champion, is this week’s biggest mover, jumping two spots to No. 14.

The poll was voted upon by a panel of head coaches representing each of the conference and unaffiliated groups. The final regular-season Division I Women’s Basketball Coaches’ Top 25 Poll will be announced on March 7.

For a complete look at the Top 25 Poll click here

Rogers State (20-10) will compete in the Sooner Athletic Conference March 1-3. The Hillcats enter the tournament as the fourth seed and will take on the fifth seed St. Gregory’s at 10:45 a.m. at Bill George Arena on the Campus of John Brown University (Ark.).