FORT SMITH, Ark. – With a share of the Heartland Conference regular season title on the line, the Rogers State men's basketball team hung until the end, but were unable to top UA Fort Smith on Saturday inside the Stubblefield Center as the Lions pulled out the victory, 65-60.
 
RSU struggled from the free throw line, shooting a season-low 44 percent on the game and the missed opportunities at the line proved costly in the five-point loss. The Hillcats built a two-point halftime lead and pushed it to a game-high seven-point advantage in the first two minutes of the second half.
 
A Jeylyn Sharpe layup with 2:55 remaining tied the game at 58-58 for the 11th and final tie of the contest. UAFS' Kyree Elder made the front end of two free throws to give the Lions a one-point edge just six seconds later.
 
The two teams were held scoreless over the next two minutes of play before Elder secured a long defensive rebound off a Hillcat missed 3-pointer that led to a fastbreak layup, building the Lion lead to 61-58 with 46 seconds left.
 
A put back layup by Sharpe cut the deficit back to one point at 61-60 with 24 seconds to go and forced RSU to foul on the in-bounds play for UAFS. The Lions got the ball to the Heartland Conference's leading free throw shooter, Seth Youngblood, on the inbounds and the conference-leading, 91-percent free throw shooter knocked down both attempts and built the advantage to 63-60 for the Lions with 17 seconds remaining.
 
A missed 3-pointer at the other end by RSU with five seconds left led to a foul by the Cats and a trip to the line as UAFS knocked down both free throws and secured the 65-60 victory.
 
The Hillcats led 37-35 at the half after shooting 56 percent from the field and 57 percent from 3-point in a back-and-forth affair in the first stanza. The teams were tied eight times in the first half and the lead changed hands 10 times.
 
RSU's Sharpe finished with a game-high 26 points as the forward from Ketchum, Okla. hit 4-of-6 from behind the arc. The senior moved into second in program history with 1,125 career points, passing first-ever 1,000 point scorer in Hillcat history Sylvester Spicer (2007-10) at 1,111.
 
Baron Smith Jr. tallied 13 points, all coming in the second half, while JD Tisdale added 10 points. The Hillcats out-rebounded the Lions 38-37 and dished out 16 assists while forcing UAFS into 15 turnovers. But seven missed free throws in the second half proved costly despite RSU not visiting the line in the final minute of the game.
 
UA Fort Smith (20-10, 13-5 HC) claimed a three-way share of the Heartland Conference regular season championship with the win. The Lions two lone seniors, Alex Cooper and Youngblood, combined for 34 points as the two finished their careers inside the Stubblefield Center with a team-high 17 points each. Elder added 12 points in the victory for the Lions as UAFS finished tied in the standings with Dallas Baptist and Texas A&M International.
 
Rogers State (19-9, 12-6) will enter the Heartland Conference Basketball Tournament as the fourth seed and will face the fifth seed Lubbock Christian at 7:30 p.m. on Friday, March 3 at the Union Multipurpose Activity Center in Tulsa, Okla. RSU Radio 91.3 FM will provide live play-by-play coverage throughout the tournament with audio streaming simulcast available on the Hillcat Network at www.rsuhillcats.com/live.
 
For complete information, tournament brackets, live stats and live video of the Heartland Conference Tournament visit www.heartlandsports.org/bbchampionship.