CLAREMORE, Okla. - The Rogers State women's basketball team dropped a heartbreaker on Saturday afternoon as East Central edged the Hillcats, 57-54, inside the Claremore Expo.
 
The game-tying shot clanked off the iron at the buzzer, leading to the season opening defeat. Mikaila Newton cut the Tiger lead to two points with a three pointer at the shot clock buzzer with under three minutes to play. ECU guard Taylor Fischer converted a free throw to push the lead to three points with one minute to play.  
 
The Tigers clung to a single-digit lead for the first nine minutes of the second half before RSU used an 8-0 run to take its first lead of the stanza with a jumper by Jalissa Felici as the Hillcats led 43-42.
 
Neither team was able to control the lead throughout the first frame as the lead changed six times. The Tigers took the largest lead of the half as a layup by Erin Walling capped a 7-0 run to push the advantage to six points. Taylor Koelsch cut the deficit to four with a layup and Madison Dearmin converted a pair of free throws to make it a 31-29 deficit going into intermission.
 
Amari Jones led the Hillcats with 16 points and nine rebounds while Jordan Evans was the only other Hillcat to reach double digits scoring with 12 points and eight rebounds in the RSU debut for both juniors.
 
Fischer led ECU with 16 points. The Tigers shot 80 percent from the free throw line while the Hillcats shot just 53.8 percent from the charity stripe. RSU shot 44 percent from the field and 21.4 percent from behind the arc. The Tigers shot 34.5 percent from the field and 31.3 percent from long distance.  
 
Rogers State (0-1) will return to action on Tuesday, November 18 as the Hillcats travel to Alva, Okla., to take on Northwestern Oklahoma State at 7 p.m.
 
For more information about RSU Basketball, visit www.rsuhillcats.com.