CLAREMORE, Okla. - John Brown heated up as Rogers State cooled down leading to an 85-67 victory for the Golden Eagles Thursday night at the Claremore Expo.
 

The Hillcats put up a fight for a while, but eventually wore down with only seven scholarship players available for the final Sooner Athletic Conference game of the first semester. A three point contest at halftime, the game quickly turned into a rout in the second period as the Golden Eagles shot 52 percent from the field.
 

RSU grabbed a nine point lead in the opening minutes on back-to-back threes by Lance Sullivan. JBU answered with a 13-0 run to take the lead for good. Sullivan and Deveric Taylor teamed up for 21 points in the first half to keep the Cats close. However, in the second half the RSU offense all but disappeared.
 

The Golden Eagles opened the second half on a 19-4 run and held the Hillcats without a field goal for the first eight minutes of the period. By the time Reggie Burnett barreled his way inside for a hard earned bucket at the 11:44 mark, the damage had already been done. The lead peaked at 27 with just over final minutes remaining.

RSU managed to hold JBU's top two scorers, Davaughn Jackson and Coleson Rakestraw, to a combined total of 10 points. But, it was seemingly everyone else that hurt the Hillcats on this night. Adrius Mikutis scored a team-high 21 points while Sam Bartlett added 18. The Eagles dropped in 10 3-pointers and outrebounded the Cats, 51-32.  

Sullivan scored a season-high 27 points in the loss with six treys. Taylor was held scoreless in the second half and Sylvester Spicer and Reggie Burnett combined for just 13 points in the contest. Sophomore Jeremy Marseille grabbed a game-high 11 rebounds off the bench for the Hillcats.

Rogers State (5-4, 0-3) suffered its second consecutive loss to John Brown this season. The Hillcats will look to rebound this weekend when they host Dallas Christian in a non-conference game Saturday afternoon. Tip-off has been moved to 4 p.m. at the Claremore Expo and the game will be carried live on RSU Radio 91.3 FM.