LUBBOCK, Texas (January 15, 2014) – Lubbock Christian lost a consecutive Heartland Conference contest of the season, dropping a 72-61 decision to Rogers State on Thursday evening at the Rip Griffin Center while struggling from the field and allowing the Hillcats to hit half of their field goal attempts.

The Chaps (7-6, 4-2 Heartland) loss to RSU (9-6, 3-4 Heartland) comes after Saturday's setback to Oklahoma Christian, marking only the second time LCU has posted back-to-back conference defeats, with the last pair being recorded during the 2013-14 season, also within the month of January.

LCU was held to 38-percent (20-of-53) shooting from the floor, including a 3-of-12 night by A.J. Luckey, the team's leading scorer. However, the Hillcats netted 25-of-50 of their attempts with Frederico Santos posting 18 points and J.C. Hartzler adding 16.

Down 37-33 at the half, the Chaps quickly found themselves down by another three on a triple by Hartzler on the first play after the break, but Marcos Schuster then nullified the addition with a three of his own. The teams traded buckets until a three-pointer by Luckey cut the deficit to 44-43 with 16:30 remaining.

A three-point play by Matthew Alford knotted the score at 46-all, and a bucket by Isaac Cardona gave the Chaps their first lead of the game at 48-46 with 13:45 to go. The Hillcats then scored on their next four possessions while LCU failed to add to their total, putting RSU ahead 56-48 with under 11 minutes to play.

A layup by Santos stretched RSU's lead to double digits following a media timeout, but successive three-pointers by Luckey and John Lewis spearheaded a 9-2 LCU run allowing the Chaps to pull within 60-57 and 7:28 to play. Santos went to work again by grabbing one of his game-high 16 rebounds and laying it back in on the offensive end while teammate DesJuan Newton hit a bucket in the paint before Santos added another pair of points at the free throw line for a 66-57 lead with just over five minutes on the clock.

With two minutes left to go, Ridrell Holman made one-of-two at the line to cut the Hillcat lead to 66-61, and Schuster secured a steal on the other end, but the Chaps were unable to capitalize and were forced to foul. The Hillcats went 6-of-8 from the line in the final 69 seconds to seal the victory.

For LCU, Alford posted a team-high 14 points and nine boards, while Schuster recorded 11 and Cardona tallied 10.

The Chaps look to pick up a Heartland win on Saturday at 3 p.m. when they host Arkanas-Fort Smith.