CLAREMORE, Okla. – Rogers State men's basketball head coach Justin Barkley notched his 100th career victory as the Hillcats downed visiting Lubbock Christian, 74-59, Saturday afternoon at the Claremore Expo Center.
 
Coach Barkley, in his fifth season on the Hill, led RSU to its eighth win in its last nine as the Hillcats remain in a three-way tie for first place in the Heartland Conference with an 11-5 league mark breaking a tie with the Chaparrals.
 
LCU opened the scoring but RSU quickly answered with a 12-2 run over the next six minutes and stretched the lead into double figures, 17-7, with 9:02 remaining in the first half. The Hillcats used another strong push building a 16-point advantage, 27-11, before closing the stanza with a 33-21 lead.
 
RSU allowed the Chaps to cut the deficit inside double digits opening the second half scoring the first five points but responded on a 7-2 run to regain control of the game. The margin never slipped below eight points the rest of the way as the Hillcats cut down any chance LCU had of a comeback.
 
Corey Ayala gave RSU its largest lead of the game, 70-53, with 1:43 to play gathering an offensive rebound and laying the put back home securing the season sweep over LCU winning 74-59.
 
Santos paced the Cats with 19 points and 16 rebounds for another double-double pulling down half of RSU's 32 boards in the contest. DesJuan Newton came off the bench tallying 18 points and J.C. Hartzler added 13 as the Hillcats hit 25-of-29 from the free throw line in the game.
 
Isaac Cardona led the Chaps with 21 points on 10-of-12 shooting while Beau Durham added 12 points.
 
Rogers State (17-7, 11-5HC) hits the road for its final away games of the season facing Oklahoma Christian Thursday at 7:30 p.m. Catch the action live on the Hillcat Network at www.rsuhillcats.com/live and on the airwaves at RSU Radio 91.3FM.