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BOLIVAR, Mo. -- The SBU Bearcats won their 20th game of the season, routing the Northwest Missouri State Bearcats, 85-66, on a night when they honored their lone senior, All-American center Matt Rogers.
 
"Matt is a special person and a great basketball player," said SBU head coach Jeff Guiot. "He is a great leader, but even greater person. He always had a great attitude and worked hard. His future is bright. The team wanted to win for him and was motivated." Rogers missed his seventh straight game due to a knee injury.
 
The SBU Bearcats have now won 20 games in four of the last five seasons under Guiot. In SBU basketball history over the last 45 years, this was just the ninth 20-win season.

Ryan Dougherty led SBU (20-9, 11-8 MIAA) with a career high 23 points including six of nine from outside. Stephen Cotten also had a career night with 16 points. Kurt Koenig added 13 points and a team high nine rebounds while Tristan Steele added 10 points.
 
"Ryan wasn't playing well here lately, but he's a good player that we knew would bounce back, which he did tonight," said Guiot. "Stephen was also in a funk, but had a great approach and played well."
 
Northwest (12-14, 7-12 MIAA) was led by Girod Adams and Maciej Ustarbowski, each with 16 points.
 
SBU jumped out to an early edge, leading 17-7 with eight minutes left in the first half. The purple Bearcats would push that margin to 16 points just before halftime, and led 39-25 at the break. Northwest would close to within eight points with 12:20 left in the contest, but SBU's outside shooting, especially from Dougherty, put the game out of reach. SBU's largest second half lead was 23 points.
 
SBU shot 50% from the field for the game, including 54% in the second half. SBU connected on 11 of 24 shots (46%) from outside. SBU forced 21 Northwest turnovers.
 
"They played well tonight and finally turned things around," Guiot continued. "We lost a heartbreaker on Saturday, but came back tonight with an impressive win. We are young but when we play with confidence and know our roles, good things happen."
 
SBU will play their final regular season contest on Saturday night in St. Joseph, when they take on Missouri Western at 7:30 p.m. SBU sits in fourth place, a half game ahead of Missouri Western and Missouri Southern. Western hosts Central Missouri on Wednesday while Southern plays at Nebraska-Omaha on Thursday. The MSSU Lions visit NWMSU on Saturday afternoon.