by CLAREMORE — Zaria Collins paced the RiverHawks with 18 points. Cenia Hayes (Cherokee) had her third double-double of the season, but Northeastern State’s shooting struggles handed them a 58-53 loss at Rogers State on Saturday afternoon.
The RiverHawks never led and tailed as many as nine points to the Hillcats who snapped a four-game skid with the win. At the hoop, NSU shot season-low 32.3-percent (21-65) and 2-for-11 at the arc.
“It’s hard when you start off and challenging yourself in executing your offense to give you open looks at the basket, and it’s going to end up costing you if you can’t hit those shots. We battled back in the second half, it got a little bit better, but you got to make shots if you want to win the game,” said head coach Fala Bullock.
“We waited a little too late to turn up the heat..we started behind at the half, and the hole was hard to dig ourselves out of when you are just trying to play catchup.”
Northeastern State’s offense struggled to get much going in the first half and managed only 21 points, which was one off from a season-low. Despite this, Rogers State managed only 29 points on the RiverHawks, with most of their shots coming from the arc. The Hillcats landed four from downtown, while NSU took only two attempts, missing both. Collins carried the brunt of the scoring for NSU with ten points.
The RiverHawks closed the gap in the third and managed to tie the game at 36-36 with 35 left on a Collins layup. Rogers State responded back with a bucket in the closing seconds and led until the final 3:27. McClain closed out a run of six unanswered points to pull even a 48-48; the RiverHawks would not get past the hump.
Hayes finished the contest with 13 points and 11 rebounds, Cielo McClain had seven points off the bench in 17 minutes.
Northeastern State (3-7, 3-7 MIAA) won the rebounding battle by four with 41, their second-best outing of the season. Rogers State (2-7 2-7 MIAA) was led by Samariah Thompson, who had a game-high 20 points.
