BOLIVAR, Mo.  – Second half shooting struggles proved costly Saturday afternoon for Rogers State in a 78-51 road loss to Southwest Baptist at John Q. Hammons Court.
 
The Bearcats led by as many as 13 points in the first quarter as SBU visited the charity stripe 11 times knocking in nine of those attempts. SBU led the Hillcats 22-13 to close the first period of play.
 
RSU answered to begin the second quarter going on a 9-2 run fueled by three 3-pointers between Courtney Smith and Nikola Nedoroscikova to trim the deficit to 24-22 with 7:44 to go before half. SBU stretched the lead to a six point lead over the next 2:30 of action before both teams went cold for a two minute stretch. Nedoroscikova heated the nets for the Hillcats with her third bucket from long distance and Madison Dearmin hit her first shot of the season from behind the arc to pull RSU within one at 29-28 with just over two minutes to go before the halftime break.
 
SBU was able to close out the first half with a 7-2 run, behind four points by Megan Rosenbohm, to lead 36-30 at the intermission.
 
The third quarter saw the Bearcats grow the lead to ten and eventually to 12 points with less than 30 seconds to go before the end of the period but Nedoroscikova hit a buzzer beater to pull the Cats back within ten trailing 51-41 at the end of the third quarter.
 
RSU struggled however in the second half hitting just 21.9 percent from the field while SBU hit at a 55.6 percent clip as RSU fell 78-51 to the Bearcats.
 
"We had a good second quarter and I thought we got things going but we were unable to get that to carry over in the second half," said RSU head coach Bobby Cope. "They (SBU) made big plays and hit shots when they needed to."
 
Southwest Baptist (6-1) was led by Rosenbohm with 14 points as three Bearcats scored in double-figures. SBU shot 53 percent for the game and 77 percent from the charity stripe as RSU doubled the Bearcats in personal fouls as the Hillcats committed 28 fouls to SBU's 14.
 
Nedoroscikova finished with 14 points for the Hillcats hitting 4-of-7 from 3-point range while Natasha Kindred totaled 11 points as RSU shot just 29 percent from the field.
 
Rogers State (3-5) returns to action in a week hosting Henderson State at 2 p.m. on Saturday, Dec. 10 at the Claremore Expo. Live video and audio streaming will be provided on the Hillcat Network at www.rsuhillcats.com along with play-by-play coverage on RSU Radio 91.3 FM.