{"id":54336,"date":"2020-03-07T15:34:53","date_gmt":"2020-03-07T21:34:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/?p=54336"},"modified":"2020-03-07T15:34:58","modified_gmt":"2020-03-07T21:34:58","slug":"tigers-struggle-offensively-fall-to-ucm-in-miaa-semifinals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/?p=54336","title":{"rendered":"Tigers struggle offensively, fall to UCM in MIAA semifinals"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

KANSAS CITY, Mo. \u2013 For as good as the Tigers played defense\nand as poorly as they shot, the halftime deficit wasn\u2019t anything too serious to\novercome.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But when the offensive struggles continued in the third\nquarter, Central Missouri began to distance itself from the Fort Hays State University\nwomen\u2019s basketball team and then held on to win 59-48 on Saturday afternoon in\nthe MIAA tournament semifinals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt was a hard-fought game,\u201d said FHSU coach Tony Hobson. \u201cDefensively\nin the first half, I thought we were about as good as we could be. We forced 15\nturnovers and held them to 21 points. It was we just got some good looks early,\na lot of open 3 looks, and we couldn\u2019t get anything to drop. We got in an early\nhole. It was a hard-fought game. I knew it would be.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Jennies, the regular-season MIAA champs and tourney\u2019s\nNo. 1 seed, eventually scored the game\u2019s first points and led the entire way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But the Tiger defense kept them in it as FHSU trailed 16-9 after the first quarter and 21-17 at the break.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cTheir defense, they\u2019re just hard to play against,\u201d said FHSU\u2019s Belle Barbieri, who had eight points and 12 rebounds. \u201cThey are just as athletic as us. It\u2019s almost like they know your next move. Their hands are always on the ball. They move well to the post. It just makes it tough to get shots up. Obviously, it wasn\u2019t falling like maybe it was (Friday), so you just have to play through it and keep going.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fort Hays (23-7) shot just 26% from the floor in the first\n20 minutes and had 10 turnovers. But Central Missouri (26-4) wasn\u2019t much\nbetter, making only 32% of its shots while being forced into 15 turnovers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThat was about a great of a defensive game as I\u2019ve seen in a long time,\u201d said UCM coach Dave Slifer. \u201cThey are always hard to score against, but I thought our defense was outstanding throughout the whole evening. It made for an ugly game; the second quarter was not pretty basketball. We understand that, but we grounded it out and still had a four-point lead at halftime.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Jennies stretched the lead to 16 points in the third\nquarter, as FHSU began to search for answers. A day earlier in a win against\nPitt State, the Tigers used a solid run in the third and fourth quarters to win\nin quarterfinal action.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAs the game wore on, I thought we had a little fatigue\nissue and shots got hard to get,\u201d Hobson said. \u201cThe start of the third quarter\nreally hurt us. We made a really good run at them and cut it to six and had the\nball. If we could have held that lead of theirs to maybe 10 or eight instead of\n14, 16 points, then when you make your run you have a two-point game. It got\naway from us right there. I thought our kids showed a lot of heart by coming\nback, but they made some big shots when they needed to and got a couple key\noffensive rebounds. They showed why they won the conference. They\u2019re a tough\nteam to handle, and they got us today.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fort Hays trimmed the 16-point lead down to 41-30 at the end\nof the third quarter, but UCM pushed the lead back to 13 after a basket by Nija\nCollier with 6:31 remaining.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Collier finished with 15 points and six rebounds for the\nJennies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI think our post players did the best they possibly could,\u201d\nsaid FHSU\u2019s Jaden Hobbs, who led the Tigers with 16 points and three assists. \u201cOur\npost players battling her, she\u2019s really athletic and a really good rebounder.\nShe showed by she made the all-conference team. The physicality did take a toll\non us a little bit, but hopefully that will just prepare us for later on.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hobbs scored nine of her points in the final period, and had\na key assist to Madison Mittie on a 3-pointer with 3:03 to play. That cut the\nmargin to 49-42 and was the closest the Tigers had been in some time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But UCM\u2019s Morgan Fleming hit a step-back 3-pointer from the\ntop of the key to answer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Tigers tried to make one last push, cutting the lead to\n54-48 after a trey by Hobbs with 1:09 to play.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But once again the Jennies found an answer, this time from\nMIAA player of the year Megan Skaggs. She hit a 3 pointer as the shot clock ran\ndown, pushing the advantage to 57-48 with just 31 seconds remaining.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt just kind of shows why she\u2019s player of the year,\u201d Hobbs\nsaid about Skaggs, who finished with just seven points. \u201cWe did a good job on\nher defensively throughout the game, but she just showed us why she was player\nof the year. It was a tough shot.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cShe hit one and Fleming hit one,\u201d Hobson said. \u201cTaylor (Rolfs)\nplayed pretty good defense on her and had a good hand up. She\u2019s a 26% 3-point\nshooter on the year, but I think with important shots, she seems to make a much\nhigher percentage than that. She sure shot a much higher percentage on those\nshots against us this year.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Central Missouri would hit free throws the rest of the way\nto win for the second time this year against FHSU. It was the Jennies\u2019 eighth\nwin in a row and 23rd<\/sup> in their last 24 games.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fleming finished with 20 points for UCM and pulled down\nseven rebounds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

UCM shot 43% for the game, while FHSU struggled with only\n32% shooting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 17 points at halftime were the fewest the Tigers have scored in any game this year. The previous low was 23 against Missouri Western.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Central Missouri, ranked No. 15 in the nation, advanced to the\nfinale Sunday. A year ago, FHSU beat UCM in the title game.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Jennies were ranked No. 1 in the regional poll entering\nthe week, while FHSU was sixth. The top eight teams make the NCAA DII\npostseason regional next weekend.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Teams that make the postseason will be revealed Sunday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe\u2019re planning on playing again, and that\u2019s how we\u2019re approaching it,\u201d Hobson said. \u201cThat\u2019s not 100% sure, but I think we have a really good shot to get in the tournament. We\u2019re approaching it like we\u2019re going to make it. Until they tell us otherwise, we\u2019re playing basketball. It wasn\u2019t about the seniors and it\u2019s been nice knowing you or anything. I think with the win (Friday) it solidified it a little bit, but anything can happen. We don\u2019t know who\u2019s going to win one of the other conference tournaments. You just never know the goofy way Division II runs their playoffs. It\u2019s the strangest thing I\u2019ve ever seen. You just don\u2019t know what\u2019s going to happen. We\u2019ll just wait and see and find out tomorrow night.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n