KANSAS CITY, Mo. – The Rogers State men's basketball team staged a come-from-behind, 69-63, victory over Evangel (Mo.) and advance to the Round of Eight at the Buffalo Funds-NAIA Division I Men's Basketball National Championship at Municipal Auditorium in Kansas City, Mo. on Friday.
"Evangel is a very structured, disciplined and well coached team," Barkley said. "Our guys adjusted and hung tough. At this point in the year you aren't going to play any teams that don't belong. We had mental toughness down the stretch. Our defensive intensity is what won us the game. The credit goes to our guys. I thought our post players did a great job adjusting to the movement of their offense, which allowed us to get back in it. Brian Gibson really brought it. It was the things he did that don't show up on the stat sheet that made the difference."
The Crusaders came out strong, opening the contest with a 21-8 lead thanks to a 12-0 run. Alex Ewings started the RSU comeback with a three-pointer from the right elbow followed by a made free throw to convert the four-point play and cut the deficit to nine points with nine minutes to play in half.
"I love Alex Ewings. I am probably harder on him than anyone else on our team and he knows it," Barkley said. "It's because of guys like him who bust their tail and sacrifice for the team that I got into coaching. Our guys were unselfish today, our bench was huge."
The Hillcats ended the first frame on a 12-3 rally and went into intermission, trailing 35-32. RSU opened the second stanza with an 8-0 run capped off by a Donald Williams trey from the left elbow, taking a five-point advantage. The team traded buckets but the Cat took over with 12:30 to play with a 12-0 spurt. The Hillcats clung to the single digit advantage the rest of the way. Mitch McHenry drained a long trey to cut the Hillcat lead to two with 30 seconds to go. However, Larry Cox drained two free throws and the Hillcat defense denied the Crusaders a shot at the other end, forcing EU to foul Brian Gibson who sealed the win as he converted both of his free shots.
Donald Williams tallied a game-high 23 points. With four trey in the contest, the Baton Rouge, La. native has 88 three-pointers on the year, taking over the single-season record set by Matt Kellogg last season with 84 long distance shots.
"Our coaches believed in us all year and we have stuck together, we are family," Donald Williams said. "We fell behind but checked our attitude at the start of the second half, played good defense and pulled it off. Coach Barkley gives me confidence, all the coaches really believe in me and told me to keep shooting so it helped me when we got on the court."
Brian Gibson added a career-high 10 points and five rebounds.
Roger State (24-8) will advance to the round of eight at the NAIA National Championship for the second consecutive season. They will play No. 1 Shorter (Ga.) on Saturday at 2 p.m. Live audio will be streamed at www.rsuhillcats.com/live.
