CLAREMORE, Okla. – The Rogers State men silenced the St. Mary's Rattlers with sharp shooting in a 63-52 victory Saturday afternoon at the Claremore Expo.
 
In his 100th game as a Hillcat, senior forward Jeylyn Sharpe became just the fifth Hillcat all-time to reach 1,000 career points. The Ketchum, Okla. native finished with 19 points leading all scorers and etching his name in the history books as he moved into fourth all-time in the tenth season of Hillcat basketball with 1,009 career points.
 
With 9:22 remaining and the Hillcats up by 11, Sharpe secured an offensive rebound off a missed 3-pointer and got the put-back layup. With the offensive board, his second of the game, Sharpe became the career offensive rebound leader with 183 passing Sylvester Spicer.
 
The rebound and layup proved important as the Rattlers would go on a four point run trimming the Hillcat lead to nine points with 8:16 remaining. Sharpe responded with a 3-pointer off a Baron Smith Jr. assist to push the Hillcat lead back out to 56-44 with under eight minutes to go.
 
StMU would push the deficit back under ten with 5:14 remaining on a jumper by Ed Seay. RSU answered after JD Tisdale split a trip to the charity stripe. Christopher Ikuenobe finished a layup off a Smith assist and Smith added a fast break layup of his own to put the Hillcats up 63-50 with just under four minutes to play.
 
Neither team would score over the next 3:20 of action before Will Ferguson would knock down a pair of free throws in the final half minute and RSU came away with the 63-52 victory.
 
The Hillcats were hitting at a high rate, shooting 53.3 percent, in the first half. Smith was a spark plug for RSU as the junior point guard tallied 16 points and dished out three assists. The LaGrange, Ga. native scored the first 12 points for the Hillcats and assisted the fourteenth point for to open the game.
 
Smith finished with 18 points, six assists and six steals with just three turnovers for RSU. Tisdale finished with 14 points as just six Hillcats scored. RSU nabbed 10 steals forcing the Rattlers into 21 turnovers. The Hillcats shot 49.1 percent from the field and 31 percent from 3-point for its second straight win.
 
St. Mary's (8-13, 5-6) was led by Seay with 13 points while Ferguson added 12 points on 4-of-14 shooting from the field. Yanni Wettzel, the leading scorer for the Rattlers this season averaging 15 points per game, was held to four points and eight rebounds in 26 minutes of play.
 
Rogers State (14-7, 7-4) returns to action Thursday, February 2 on the road facing the Newman Jets in Wichita, Kan. The Hillcats will look to avenge its loss to the Jets at home earlier this month.
 
RSU Radio 91.3 FM will provide live play-by-play coverage of the road game at Newman with live audio streaming simulcast on the Hillcat Network at www.rsuhillcats.com/live.