Men's basketball shoulders hard loss to Rogers State

John Moon was the Eagles' only player to reach double digits in their 86-46 loss to Rogers State on Thursday. — John Moon was the Eagles’ only player to reach double digits in their 86-46 loss to Rogers State on Thursday. *Photo by Roxi Gonzalez*

The men’s basketball team’s first road match-up in a two-game trip ended with Oklahoma Christian University on the bottom of a 40-point chasm between the Eagles and Rogers State University.

Averaging 30.2 percent shooting accuracy for the game and with only one player scoring double digits, Oklahoma Christian walked off the court with a 86-46 loss.

Men’s Basketball Head Coach Dan Hays said it was simply a poor performance.

“We didn’t do anything right to be quite honest,” Hays said. “We were very poor on offense, defensively at times we were ok [but] couldn’t slow them down. It was just a total mismatch on this particular night.”

The Eagles appeared flustered in the first half, shooting just 26.1 percent compared to the Hillcats’ 43 percent, resulting in a 25-17 Hillcat lead at halftime.

Oklahoma Christian spurred its efforts in the second half, adding 29 points and improving to 35 percent shooting, but failed to maintain the defensive performance they showed in Saturday’s game against Dallas Baptist University.

Freshman Jordan Box said although the team has struggled this season, they find ways to move forward.

“We’re losing but I feel like we’re growing each game,” Box said. “We’re a pretty tight-knit group, everybody has each other’s back. And when someone misses a shot, the bench tells them to keep shooting. Everybody motivates each other.”

John Moon led the team as the sole Eagle to shoot into the double digits with 18 points, 10 were from the free-throw line. He also grabbed seven rebounds and one steal.

Eric Randall, who missed the three previous games due to a concussion, returned to the court and added eight points as well as three rebounds.

Jordan Rutherford picked up two steals, one rebound and seven points, including one of Oklahoma Christian’s three 3-pointers. Box recorded six points, two assists and two rebounds.

According to Hays, losses similar to this have happened to the Eagles before and the team has struggled to shoot well all season, but there is usually a reason behind a poor performance.

“I think you get into that mindset that you’re not making shots and so [when] shooting it you’re thinking ‘Oh my gosh I hope I make this one’ instead of thinking ‘Yeah that’s there,” Hays said. “I like these guys, they’ve been working so much, we just never have our full team and in basketball that’s important.”

The Eagles close their brief road series at the University of Arkansas-Fort Smith on Saturday at 3 p.m.