SAN ANTONIO, Texas – The Rogers State men's basketball team rallied to force overtime and went on to win 71-67 at St. Mary's on Saturday to start Heartland Conference play at Bill Greehey Arena.
 
Senior forward Jeylyn Sharpe scored the first nine points of the overtime period as he posted a career-high 22 points in the league victory.
 
The navy and red used an 8-0 run in the final two minutes of regulation to force overtime. Trailing 60-52, Baron Smith Jr. started the run with a layup at the 2:03 mark. Sharpe cut the deficit in half with a 3-pointer for a 60-57 score with 1:05 left. JD Tisdale split a pair of free throws after he was fouled on an attempted dunk to make it 60-58 with 27 seconds remaining.
 
RSU was forced to foul to get the ball back with only 27 seconds left. StMU's Robbie Benavides, who came into the game shooting better than 90 percent from the free throw line, missed a free throw, and the Cats gathered the rebound.
 
Tisdale tied the score at 60-60 with a layup with 8 seconds remaining. Benavides again had a chance from the free throw line after a RSU foul, but he missed again on a 1-and-1 with 6 seconds left. The Rattlers got the offensive rebound, but turned it over with 2 seconds remaining as the game went to overtime.
 
Sharpe put the Cats up early in overtime with a three-point play at the 4:43 mark for a 63-60 score and an 11-0 run.
 
After StMU knotted the score at 63-63, Sharpe struck again with a jumper at 3:26 for a 65-63 lead. Sharpe continued to score all the points in overtime with another jumper with 2:11 left for a 67-64 advantage.
 
Sharpe hit two free throws with 10 seconds remaining, and Smith Jr. added two free throws with 4 seconds left to close out the win.
 
Tisdale added 17 points off the bench on 6-of-8 shooting from the field. Smith Jr. finished with 15 points, five rebounds, five assists and four steals.
 
The Cats shot 47.4 percent (27-57) from the field and 35.3 percent (6-17) from 3.
 
StMU finished 44.8 percent (26-58) from the field and held a 43-29 advantage in rebounding.  
 
The Hillcats travel to Texas A&M International on Monday (Dec. 19) for a league contest in Laredo, Texas at 7:30 p.m. Coverage will be available on the Hillcat Network at www.rsuhillcats.com/live and on RSU radio at 91.3 FM.