Lincoln women come up just short

It was a record-breaking start Thursday night for the Rogers State women's basketball team.

The Hillcats broke an MIAA record with 37 points in the first quarter. But they still barely hung on for an 81-79 win against the Lincoln Blue Tigers at Jason Gym.

Lincoln trailed by as many as 29 points in the closing minutes of the first quarter, cut its deficit to single digits by halftime and came within one point of the lead with 2:40 to play.

"I really like our resiliency," Lincoln coach Drea Mize said. "I think we've got a really good core group of young players. Our staff was just talking about it, 67 of our 79 points tonight came from two freshmen and two sophomores.

"The only the downfall to that was we got into tight situations and didn't quite know what to do yet."

Rogers State shot 8-of-12 from 3-point range in the first quarter and made five of their remaining six shots inside the arc.

The Hillcats scored the game's first 11 points and led 37-8 with 1:02 to go in the opening quarter, before Lincoln's Aliyah Bello scored two layups to make the score 37-12 going into the second quarter.

The 37 points set an MIAA record for most points scored in a quarter in a women's basketball game, breaking the record of 36 set by Fort Hays State against UC-Colorado Springs on Nov. 17, 2017.

"I would say half of it was we gave it to them, because we didn't understand our defensive movement," Mize said. "The other half was they were definitely lucky, they started seeing the ball go into the hole and then it just did not stop."

Luckily for Lincoln, the Blue Tigers followed their worst quarter of the season with their best quarter of the season.

"We've been trying to put them in situations where you have to bounce back," Mize said. "You put them down early, then they have to fight back and claw back."

Lincoln went on a 16-0 run during the second quarter, which pulled the Blue Tigers within eight at 39-31 with 3:10 left in the half. In that stretch, Rogers State had 12 possessions, committing six turnovers and then shooting 0-for-8 from the floor on the other six possessions.

Mize said Lincoln's ball pressure played a key role during that run.

"Our ability to not allow them to get set up in anything, to speed them up and not let them get comfortable and to be able to find the shooters was really, really good for us," she said.

Ashtin Ingram knocked down a 3 to pull the Blue Tigers within five, but Alyche Brown answered with a 3 at the buzzer to give Rogers State a 45-37 lead at intermission.

Lincoln never trailed by double digits in the second half, but the Blue Tigers also never could get over that hurdle to pull even with the Hillcats.

"They switched to a 2-3 zone and would switch back to man-to-man," Mize said. "That really put our freshman point guard into a frenzy, trying to read the defense."

Ingram hit a pair of 3s to make the score 57-55 with 2:18 left in the third quarter, but Rogers State ended the quarter with another clutch 3. The Hillcats went into the fourth with a 64-57 advantage.

AJ Bradley scored 12 of her team-high 25 points in the fourth quarter for Lincoln. The Blue Tigers' point guard began attacking the basket, either getting layups or drawing fouls to get to the free-throw line.

"She's a tremendous ballplayer," Mize said. "I probably ride her harder than anybody else. I've always challenged her, but it's because I know how good she can be."

Niyah Jackson's 3 from the left corner closed the gap to 72-71, but Rogers State answered on the other end. Samariah Thompson, who matched Bradley with 25 points, scored baskets on each of the Hillcats' next two possessions.

Haylie Holloway made a baseline jumper with :00.4 left to make the final margin two points for the Blue Tigers, who outscored the Hillcats in each of the last three quarters.

Jackson finished with 18 points for Lincoln, while Bello and Ingram added 13 and 11 points, respectively.

Vanessa Gajdosova finished with 17 points for Rogers State (3-7).

Lincoln (0-11) continues its homestand at 1 p.m. Saturday against Northeastern State (3-8), which lost 86-62 to Central Missouri on Thursday.

"We're going to look at film, we're going to see what hurt us in the first quarter," Mize said. "But I absolutely loved what we did, especially in the second quarter. If you get that first quarter back, this is a totally different game."