Claremore, Okla. -- Reigning Sooner Athletic Conference Player of the Week Charlie Shorter scored 23 first-half points to keep the Mid-America Christian University Evangels close, but the No. 5-ranked Rogers State University Hillcats were too much in the second half and cruised to a 98-69 win in conference action Saturday evening (Feb. 18) at the Expo Center in Claremore, Okla. The Evangels had knocked off the fifth-ranked Hillcats 73-67 in the first meeting this season back on Jan. 7 in OKC.

The Hillcats jumped out to a 13-point lead in the first half as a three-point play by Justynn Hammond and a trey from Alex Ewings made it 23-10.

After Shorter halted the run with a three, Donald Williams hit consecutive buckets to ignite a 10-2 run for an 18-point cushion at the 7:59 mark of the opening half.

That's when Shorter came alive and kept the Evangels within striking distance. He scored 16 of the Evangels' final 20 points of the half, including a three with four seconds left to cut the deficit to 46-35 at the break.

Shorter wound up with 23 points in the opening half on 8-of-11 shooting and 4-of-5 from beyond the arc.

Shorter then began the second half like he concluded the opening 20 minutes with a basket that brought the Evangels (13-12, 8-12 SAC) to within single digits at 46-37.

But Williams scored the next eight Hillcat points to stretch the lead back to 54-39 with 17:55 left.

The Evangels were still within three after a trey by Camilo Valencia made it 73-58 at the 7:53 mark, but couldn't gain any more headway as the Hillcats put the game away with an 11-2 run to pull out to an 84-62 lead with 4:43 left.

RSU was able to keep the Evangels at arms length in large part to a blazing 71 percent (22-of-31) shooting clip in the second half.

The Hillcats also overwhelmed the Evangels inside with a whopping 49-19 advantage overall on the boards and a 56-30 advantage in points in the paint.

Shorter was the lone Evangel in double-figures with 27 points, but scored only four in the second half. Valencia had nine points, with four assists and four steals.

In contrast, Williams paced five Hillcats in double-digit scoring with 25 points on 10-of-15 shooting overall and 4-of-8 from three-point distance. Larry Cox and Brian Gibson each had a game-high nine boards for RSU.

It doesn't get any easier as the Evangels will next play at No. 2-ranked Oklahoma Baptist on Thursday night (Feb. 23) at 8 p.m. in Shawnee, Okla.

With two regular season games remaining, the Evangels are tied with Northwestern Oklahoma State for ninth in the conference, one game behind Oklahoma City for the eighth and final spot in the SAC Postseason Tournament.