CLAREMORE, Okla. - Rogers State men's basketball claimed its third consecutive SAC win with a victory over St. Gregory's, 85-70, Thursday night inside the Claremore Expo.
The Hillcats clinched a seven point lead off a Matt Kellogg jumper from Maurice Rutherford, six minutes into the game, to jump out early on SGU. RSU never allowed its lead to drop below five but didn't pull away from SGU by more than eight points during a ten minute stretch in the first half.
Jeremy Marseille scored on a put back off his own miss to push the Hillcat lead to nine and Kellogg added a basket of his own to stretch the count to 34-23 in favor of the Hillcats. A Dylan Lemley layup cut the Cats lead back to nine with three minutes remaining and both teams went on a scoring drought to head into intermission, RSU leading 34-25.
It wasn't until the ten minute mark in the second period that the Cats claimed a double-digit lead it wouldn't relinquish as a Chris Francis' jumper put the Hillcats up 55-45. Jordan Burrell hit a 3-pointer from the left corner to give Coach Justin Barkley's squad its biggest lead of the game at 23 with just over three minutes remaining. SGU closed out the game on a 12-4 run as RSU claimed the 85-70 final over the Cavaliers.
John Boyd recorded his fourth double-double of the season, tallying 17 points and 11 boards. Boyd finished with a career high five assists while Rutherford reached a career high assists mark with seven. RSU doled out 16 assists the most in a conference game this season.
Kellogg led all scorers with 21 points, hitting 83 percent from behind the arc. Larry Cox finished with 14 points in his second appearance at the Expo while Deveric Taylor chipped in 13. With 85 points, RSU set a season high for points in a conference match-up. RSU turned the ball over only nine times and shot 73 percent from the charity stripe.
Fayzon Richey led the Cavaliers in scoring with 20 and Dylan Lemley finished with 19. SGU (4-6, 1-5) shot a lowly 17 percent from long distance in the first half. The bright spot for the Cavs was in the block column finishing with seven.
Rogers State (8-6, 4-3) will finish off four-games in eight days, on the road in Shawnee, Okla. against No. 7 Oklahoma Baptist. Tip-time is set for 8 p.m. as the game will be carried on RSU Radio 91.3FM.
