LAREDO, Texas- The Rogers State men's basketball team dropped a heartbreaker on the road Thursday night as Texas A&M International edged the Hillcats 75-72 in its Heartland Conference home opener.
With 10 lead changes and the score knotted eight times, neither team held a comfortable lead at any point in the contest. The Dustdevils held the largest lead of the second half with trio of made free throws by Matthew Pritchett to give the team a five-point advantage with 9:40 to play in the game. Damien Hooks quickly cut the lead with a trey. The senior from Tulsa, Okla. came alive in the final minutes of the game, scoring five straight points to give the Cats a one-point advantage with 5:35 to play.
The teams traded buckets for the final five minutes of the game and RSU had opportunities to add to their lead but struggled to covert from the free throw line down the stretch while the Dustdevils tallied four points from the charity stripe in the final 10 second. TAMIU pushed its advantage to four points with just eight seconds to play but the Hillcats continued to battle all the way to the finish as Jerry Dixon drained a three pointer from the top of the key with just two seconds remaining to cut the Dustdevil's lead to one point. Jordan Clark sealed the win with a pair of made free throws.
RSU tallied their largest lead of the game in the opening stanza with a nine point advantage following a pair of made free throw by J.C. Hartzler with seven minutes to play. However, TAMIU outscored the Cats 10-1 in the final three minutes of the half to take a four point lead into the locker room at intermission.
Hooks led all scorers with 20 points on the night. Freshman Jeylyn Sharpe tallied 14 points, Dixon registered 12 points and Hartzler poured in 10 points. RSU shot 61 percent from behind the arc as Sharpe went 4-for-4 on the night from long distance. RSU shot 51 percent from the field and TAMIU edged RSU on the boards 29-25. Jordan Clark led the Dustdevils in scoring with 19 points on the night.
Rogers State (6-4) will round out the road trip at St. Mary's in San Antonio, Texas on Saturday at 3 p.m. RSU Radio 91.3FM will provide live broadcast of the action. The Hillcat Network (www.rsuhillcats.com/live) will provide a live audio simulcast of the action along with audio streaming provided at www.rsuradio.com.
