TAHLEQUAH – For the second time in the last 72 hours, the RiverHawks dropped a home contest on a buzzer-beater and fell 61-59 to Rogers State on Friday inside the NSU Event Center.

The Hillcats with 0.4 left on the clock launched a shot from the right wing that moved them to 11-1 this season and 3-0 in MIAA play.

"That's two games in a row where you lose on a shot like that," said head coach Mark Downey.  "I take the last possession, that's on me. I went to a defense we've been working on in practice, and I got to stay true to myself and just guard them."
"We let a guy get loose, and we didn't execute the defense like we're supposed to.  If we're in man or loaded up, we don't give up a three right there. They might get something at the rim; we were really worried about them getting something at the rim, we guarded that and let a guy get loose and make a shot."

Friday's heartbreaker overshadowed a career performance from Red Oak's Brad Davis, who led the team off the bench with 24 points and went 9-for-17 on the floor.   The junior came back from a Tuesday evening game where he went scoreless.

Caleb Smith was NSU's second player in double-digits with 11 points.  Iain McLaughlin had seven points and seven rebounds.

The RiverHawks were limited to 20 points in the second half, a low mark for an NSU squad under Downey.  As a team, they were 40-percent from the field shooting 20-for-50. On the glass, the RiverHawks held a 34-32 edge on the Hillcats. 

Neither team led in double-digits with the lead exchanging hands ten times.

The loss drops the RiverHawks to 9-3 overall and 2-1 in MIAA play.

"This was a tough one, Rogers deserved to win, they played hard, but we probably deserved to win too, it's tough.  They made one more play then we did, and it's a freshman that made that play, so we're going to see him a lot in the next few years, but we'll try and enjoy Christmas and be with our families. We'll get over it, we'll get better."

Northeastern State will return to action on Jan. 4 at Northwest Missouri.