By MAYAN PAZ
Tiger Media Network
The Fort Hays State University women’s basketball team concluded its MIAA regular season on Thursday, hosting the Nebraska-Kearney Lopers. For the Tigers, this was an attempt to challenge for the top spot in the MIAA ahead of this week’s MIAA Tournament. For the Lopers, it was a last-chance game that they had to win to qualify for the tournament.
UNK took advantage of the opportunity and defeated FHSU 73-63.
The Lopers (15-15, 8-11) controlled the game from the jump, showing relentless effort on defense and forcing 17 FHSU turnovers. Fort Hays (24-4, 15-4) did its best to stay close throughout the first half, but entered the halftime break trailing 33-25.
FHSU head coach Talia Kahrs said the Lopers’ intensity made it difficult for the FHSU players to make an impact, though she also highlighted a few things that worked well for the Tigers in the game.
“They jumped us really quickly [and] made those outlet passes really difficult in the first half, and those were just unnecessary turnovers that we gave up,” Kahrs said. “But overall, I was really proud of our rebounding. I thought we did a much better job of crashing the boards and giving ourselves second-chance points.”
UNK outrebounded the Tigers by 1, 40-39; however, FHSU secured 11 offensive rebounds and scored 12 second-chance points.
“On the offensive end, we didn’t execute super well,” Kahrs said. “Kearney is tough; they dropped some games this year with just some unfortunate things that happened away from the court. But they’re a tough defensive team all the way around.”
The second half was a see-saw of momentum, as UNK pushed its lead to 14 points just 3 minutes into the third quarter before FHSU went on a 14-0 run to tie the game at 39 before eventually taking a 1-point lead into the fourth quarter.
However, UNK outscored the Tigers 30-19 in the fourth quarter and executed its late-game free-throw shooting to secure the victory, going 17-of-18 from the line in the game’s final 10 minutes.
The Tigers struggled to create on offense, scoring well below their season average of 75.9 points per game. NCAA DII leading scorer Talexa Weeter scored only 15 points, her second-lowest of the season. Kahrs complimented the Lopers for their performance against Weeter and said that the Tigers still need to find a way to involve more players offensively.
Olivia Mortensen and Kaitlin Schumann both scored 12 points for FHSU to round out the Tigers’ double-digit scorers. Jillian Aschoff led UNK with 22 points and 12 rebounds while Tara Biocanin and Myleigh Weers added 16 and 15 points, respectively.
According to Kahrs, the main focus for FHSU is to recover before preparing for the tournament.
“It’s definitely huge for us to recover right now,” she said. “That’s what we’re really focused on for the next three days, just getting some rest, recovering, and making sure we’re doing what we need to do to take care of our bodies.”
For Kearney, it was not only an impressive upset but also guaranteed their ticket to the MIAA conference tournament as the No. 10 seed. UNK will play No. 7 Missouri Western in the first round. FHSU earned the No. 2 seed and will play the winner of the Lopers and Griffons in the quarterfinals at 2:15 p.m. on Thursday in Kansas City.