SHAWNEE, Okla. - A shorthanded and emotionally drained Rogers State basketball team shook off a shaky start to clinch the Sooner Athletic Conference championship outright with a 71-62 victory over St. Gregory's Saturday in Shawnee, Okla.
The No. 1 Hillcats played without the services of sophomore guard Deveric Taylor and senior forward Roderick Rodgers who were both sidelined with injuries. RSU started out sluggish but was able to recover thanks to a complete team effort. The Hillcats jumped out to an early lead with the first basket of the game off an Aldric Reynolds' 3-pointer. However, the Cavaliers quickly took over on Senior Night and held the lead for the remainder of the first half.
RSU seemed to lack passion in the first half and Coach Lloyd Williams went deep into his bench in an attempt to get anything started. The scarcely used Desmond Ward entered at the halfway mark of the first half with the Hillcats down nine. The Tulsa native made an assist on a Matt Kellogg three and played only three minutes. RSU entered the intermission down three points after shooting just 29 percent in the first half.
However, the Cats came out of the locker room firing on all cylinders. Kellogg made back-to-back treys to give RSU its second lead of the game. The sophomore transfer started in place of Taylor and finished the game with 14 points and four 3-pointers.
The suddenly injury-plagued Hillcats suffered another scary moment in the second half when freshman forward Scottie Farrington was undercut and landed hard on his back while attempting to secure a rebound with 13:31 remaining in the game. Farrington was taken to a Shawnee area hospital for precautionary reasons and is expected to make a full recovery before next week's conference tournament. He played 10 minutes and recorded two points and four rebounds.
Senior guard Aldric Reynolds led the Hillcats in scoring with 18 points and was impressive from the free throw line, making 7-of-8. Eric Young contributed 15 points off the bench to go a long with nine rebounds. Kellogg scored 14 and Sylvester Spicer rounded out the Hillcats double digit scorers with 12 points.
The Cavaliers' Josh Coulter and Alex Moorehead led all scorers with 19 points while SGU's lone senior Derek Washington finished with 12 points. All of St. Gregory's scoring came from their starting five while the Hillcats had 25 points off the bench.
Rogers State (27-1, 21-1) completed the regular season with the nation's best record and claimed the first SAC championship in school history. The Hillcats will receive a bye in first round of the conference tournament and will play the winner of Wednesday's match-up between Oklahoma City and Lubbock Christian in Thursday's quarterfinals. Game times will be announced Sunday afternoon.
