CLAREMORE, Okla. – Just a few hours after moving up to No. 5 in the Division I NAIA Coaches' Top 25 Poll, the Rogers State men's basketball team moved up the win column defeating Ecclesia College 97-61 inside the Claremore Expo Monday night.
RSU built a 17-4 advantage in the opening eight minutes of the game and didn't look back tallying its largest lead at 25 in the first stanza. The Hillcats entered the locker room with a 46-25 lead at intermission.
Senior Jeremy Marseille stole the show with a number of low post moves as he dropped a career high 20 points. The Rockland, N.Y. native went 8-of-10 from the field, hitting 4-of-5 from the charity stripe to lead all scorers.
The Hillcats were able to build the lead to 39 points with less than five minutes remaining in the game, as an A.J. Stewart put back off a Meneptha Darden miss put RSU ahead 87-51. All ten Hillcats that were available for duty played a minimum of 19 minutes and all ten scored, as the Cats closed out the game with the 97-61 victory.
Ecclesia (3-11) was led in scoring by David Eichler with 13 points and Bryant Jackson off the bench with 11.
Stewart finished the game with 16 points including four steals and two blocks as the Hillcats had six total swats. Donald Williams finished with 13 points while Darden claimed his second double-double of the season with 13 points and 11 boards. Larry Cox rounded out the double-digit scoring with 12 points.
The Hillcat post players tallied 65 points as coach Justin Barkley's squad outscored the Royals in the paint 50-28. RSU nabbed 14 steals forcing Ecclesia into 23 turnovers and the Cats tallied 26 points off turnover.
Rogers State (9-0) will hit the road Wednesday, Dec. 14 to face Paul Quinn College in Dallas, Texas; tip time is set for 7 p.m. Live stats will be provided at www.rsuhillcats.com/live.
