CLAREMORE, Okla. (February 14, 2015) – Lubbock Christian fell out of first place within the Heartland Conference following a 74-59 loss to Rogers State on Saturday afternoon at the Claremore Expo Center in spite of Isaac Cardona tying a career-high with 21 points.

The Chaps (13-10, 10-6) have dropped four of their last seven contests, placing them in three-way tie for second place along with St. Edward's and Texas-Permian Basin while RSU, St. Mary's and UA-Fort Smith sit atop the league.

Cardona recorded the first bucket of the game, but the Chaps quickly found themselves without their leading scorer A.J. Luckey after he was whistled for three fouls within a span of two minutes, sending him to the bench.

The offense struggled for LCU as the team was only able rally seven points midway through the first half and fell behind by 16 following a trey by RSU's Jordan Huffman with four minutes to play before the break.

Cardona again began the Chap scoring, converting an and-one play to cut the Hillcat lead to 33-24 less than a minute into the half. Buckets by Cardona and Beau Durham closed the gap to 35-28 with 18:05 remaining, but RSU doubled their advantage with an 11-4 run to go up 44-30 with 15:20 on the clock.

The Chaps pulled to within single digits on a layup by Ridrell Holman with under eight minutes to go, and LCU continued to stay close, trailing 58-49 with five minutes remaining. Two free throws and a layup extended the Hillcat lead to 13, and a Holman jumper made it 62-51 with under three minutes to play.

RSU pulled ahead 70-53 on a tip-in by Cory Ayala with under two minutes to go, and the Chaps were unable to form together a final rally before falling by 16.

Durham tallied a dozen points for the Chaps, while Frederico Santos collected game-highs of 19 points and 16 rebounds for the Hillcats.

The Chaps return home to face St. Edward's Thursday at 8 p.m.