File Photo
By MAYAN PAZ
Tiger Media Network
Fort Hays State University men’s basketball will play at Gross Memorial Coliseum for the first time this season as they will host the South Dakota MInes Hardrockers on tonight.
The Tigers (0-2) opened their season with a trip to Marshall, Minn., where they played two talented teams, Southwest Minnesota State and Concordia St. Paul. The Tigers were unable to win either of the games, losing 68-62 and 82-68.
FHSU Head Coach Mark Johnson remains calm even though the team is still winless early in the season, saying both Southwest Minnesota State and Concordia St. Paul were two of the better teams the Tigers will face all season, and were what he and his staff thought they would be going into the opening weekend.
“I think the things you look at got us in trouble, we gave up too many offensive rebounds and we got beat at the foul line. The other teams attempted way too many free throws. So we got to do a better job of playing without fouling and compete better on the glass,” Johnson said. “And then obviously, we have to have some guys make more shots and shoot the ball better on the offensive end than we did. So, hopefully, it was a learning experience.”
After leading against Southwest Minnesota State at halftime, the Tigers struggled to score, shooting 36.7% in the second half and 40% for the game. FHSU struggled again in the second half against Concordia St. Paul. After shooting 53.5% in the first half, the Tigers made just 35% of their shots in the second half and only scored 28 points.
Graduate point guard Kaleb Hammeke isn’t concerned with the early season shooting woes and knows FHSU’s defense will help keep them in games until shots start to fall.
“We just need to shoot the ball better, put the ball in the hole [and] be confident when the ball comes your way and be ready to shoot great and knock through them,” he said. “I think we still played hard. I think everyone competed hard. We did pretty good defensively. We need to rebound better. Their field goal percentages were down, so that’s good for us, but we let our opponents have too many offensive rebounds and too many second chances.”
Despite losing, the road trip was a bonding experience for the team, and they had 10 days to regroup before tonight’s game against the Hardrockers (0-4). Johnson said the team has used the time off to get better in practice but also looks forward to getting back on the floor to compete against other teams.
“I think we have a good group. I think we have good chemistry already. The thing we have to do now is kind of unusual. The way the calendar works this year, there’s an extra week in the non-conference, so we don’t play for 10 days,” Johnson said. “So we’ve been practicing a lot so you can look at it both ways. In some ways, I feel like this team needs more games. That’s how we’re going to get better. But at the same time, it might be a positive that we’ve played two games. We kind of got to see the areas in which we need to improve. And now we have 10 days to try to correct those things and get better practice for our next opportunity.”
Hammeke is also confident in the team’s ability to bounce back on Tuesday.
“We’ll get healthy, get ready, work on some stuff, sharpen up our offense, keep getting better on defense, and we’ll be ready to go,” he said.
The Tigers and Hardrockers will tip off at 7 p.m. tonight inside Gross Memorial Coliseum.