SILOAM SPRINGS, Ark. – No. 5 seeded St. Gregory's led from the opening tip to the final whistle over the fourth seeded Rogers State women's basketball team as the Lady Cavaliers upset the Hillcats 58-50 in the opening round of the Meisner Aircraft Sooner Athletic Conference tournament on Thursday morning at Bill George Arena on the campus of John Brown University.
The Hillcats couldn't stop SGU guard Laticia Silva who scored almost half of the Cavs total points. The Whitesboro, Texas native poured in 27 points for SGU while adding seven rebounds.
SGU opened the contest with back-to-back buckets and RSU played catch-up the rest of the way. RSU held the deficit to single digits throughout the first frame and cut the SGU lead to two points twice but the Lady Cavs refused to relinquish the lead. With five minutes to play in the first half Logan Froese sliced the discrepancy to two with a layup but SGU answered with consecutive buckets to push the lead out to seven points. Sasha Barnes hit a half court shout at the buzzer that went off the backboard and hit the front of the rim as the Hillcats trailed 22-16 at the break. RSU shot just 20 percent from the field in the first stanza.
RSU opened the second half with a put back by Froese but the Lady Cavs answered with a 6-1 run to take a nine point lead. Ariani Silva drained a three pointer from the corner and Rician Walker tied the game with a layup off a turnover to tie the game 31-31 with 12 minutes to play. SGU followed with a 5-0 run and held off the Hillcats the rest of the way.
Claremore, Okla., native Logan Froese was the lone Cat to reach double digit scoring as she matched her season-high with 18 points while adding three steals. It was the 15th time this season the junior has tallied double digit scoring.
Rogers State (20-11) will await its fate as the Hillcats are still in contention for an at-large berth to the NAIA Tournament in Frankfort, Ky. March 14-20.
