CLAREMORE, Okla. - The Lincoln Blue Tigers closed their MIAA basketball doubleheader Saturday with a pair of losses to the Rogers State Hillcats.
The Lincoln men fell 76-67, while women suffered a 99-75 defeat.
In the men's game, Lincoln scored the first eight points of the contest, getting 3-pointers from Cameron Potts and Marcel Burton and a 2-pointer from L'Kielynn Taylor.
Rogers State took its first lead at 19-17 with under nine minutes to play in the first half. The Blue Tigers briefly took back the lead at 25-24 on a 3 by Jonell Burton, but the Hillcats then scored on back-to-back possessions to take a 29-25 lead into halftime.
It was back-and-forth early in the second half, and Lincoln retook the lead on a couple of occasions, but could never string together a run to take a sizable lead.
The Blue Tigers trailed by two points with four minutes to play, when the Hillcats went on an 8-0 run to take a 70-60 lead, their largest of the game.
Rogers State led by as many as 12 points in the closing seconds, but Potts knocked down a 3 with about :05 to play to cut the final margin to nine points.
Christopher Miller scored a game-high 22 points to go with 11 rebounds for Rogers State (16-4, 8-3 MIAA), which won its fifth game in a row. Brewster Peacock scored 15 points and Jett Sternberger added 11 points.
Marcel Burton led Lincoln (7-11, 4-5 MIAA) with 19 points and Potts finished with 16 points. Taylor grabbed a game-high 15 rebounds.
The Rogers State women snapped a 14-game losing streak, scoring their most points in a single game since finishing with 107 points against Randall on Nov. 14, 2019.
Virja Lewis scored a layup for the game's first basket to give Lincoln a 2-0 lead. It was all Hillcats after that.
Rogers State shot 57.4 percent from the floor in the win, which included making 11-of-17 shots in the first quarter to build a 26-14 lead. Although the Hillcats were just 4-of-13 in the second quarter, the Blue Tigers only cut into the lead by one point, trailing 46-35 at halftime.
Rogers State scored 34 points in the third quarter to stretch its lead to 80-57. The Hillcats led by as many as 32 points (97-65) with about three minutes to play.
Rogers State (3-17, 1-10 MIAA) had six players score in double figures, led by Bailey Kliewer with 19 points and eight rebounds.
Lincoln (3-15, 0-9 MIAA), which had its losing streak extend to seven games, was led by Lewis with game-highs of 24 points and 10 rebounds. Kyessence Collins and Natasha Elliott added 13 and 12 points, respectively.
The Blue Tigers return home Wednesday to host Washburn. The women's game starts at 5:30 p.m., followed by the men's game at 7:30 p.m.