KANSAS CITY, Mo. - After an early exit two seasons ago at the Buffalo-Funds NAIA Division I Men's Basketball Championship, Rogers State garnered its first national tournament victory as they upset the No. 6 seed Texas Wesleyan, 66-64, inside Municipal Auditorium on Wednesday night.
"We were written off very early on in the season and we kept fighting and scratching for everything we earned," Head Coach Justin Barkley said. "I'm so proud and this is the biggest win in the history of the program."
With 16.2 seconds to play, senior Larry Cox knocked down a 3-pointer from the left corner to bring the Cats within one point of the Rams.
"That's not how we drew that up," Barkley said. "I think that was option five and option five was wide open. At that point we weren't about to reset the offense, so let it fly and pray it goes in."
The Hillcats then pressured TWU on the inbound, forcing a turnover and a steal by John Boyd as he was fouled. The senior forward knocked down a pair of free throws to give the Cats a 65-64 lead with 12.6 second left in the contest. The Rams drove down the court and senior Brian Wanamaker's shot from long distance fell short and Boyd hauled in the rebound and was fouled on the play. With seven-tenths of a second remaining, Boyd drained the front side of the double bonus free throws and missed the back side, allowing the Rams a hail mary full court shot that came up empty, giving the Cats the win.
With 5:28 to play, Matt Kellogg drained a trey to cut the Rams lead to five. The senior guard hit three of his four 3-pointers in the second half. The Albuquerque, N.M. native hit a deep 3-pointer from the left wing to cut the deficit to three points to ignite the Cats comeback with 45 seconds to play.
"Matt Kellogg, that kid showed some game courage hitting those threes because they were very physical with him all 40 minutes," Barkley said. "For a guy undersized, giving up weight and athleticism, that guy never backs down and is as tough a cookie as they come."
The Hillcats trailed by as many as 11 points in the second half. However, the RSU defense was solid throughout the game as they nabbed eight steals and the Rams committed 15 turnovers. RSU came away with the victory despite shooting 38 percent from the field, 29 percent from behind the arc and 60 percent from the charity stripe.
Cox cut the halftime deficit to 40-30 with a spin move jumper. The Rams led by as many as 13 points in the first stanza. Kellogg opened the game with a trey from the right wing and the teams traded buckets for the first 10 minutes of the half. TWU out-scored the Cats 19-9 in the final 10 minutes of the opening half.
Boyd led all scorers with 25 points while chipping in three blocks and three steals. Kellogg followed with 17 points and three assists. Cox rounded out the double-digit scorers with 14 points. Maurice Rutherford dished out four assists and snatched three steals.
Wanamaker led the Rams with 18 points. Jonathan Blake was the only other player to reach double figures as he scored 11 points.
The Rams shot 42 percent from the field, 45 percent from long distance and 58 percent from the free throw line. TWU won the battle on the boards as they out rebounded the Cats 36-31.
Rogers State (21-11, 15-7) will move on to the second round to face 22nd-ranked Carroll College (Mont.) who received the sixth at-large bid as winners of the Frontier Conference regular season championship. The Fighting Saints (23-8) defeated Union University (Tenn.) 69-63 to advance. The teams will square off on Friday, March 18 at 6:15 p.m. The game will be broadcast live on RSU Radio 91.3FM.
