{"id":84187,"date":"2024-12-20T12:18:28","date_gmt":"2024-12-20T18:18:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/?p=84187"},"modified":"2024-12-20T12:54:41","modified_gmt":"2024-12-20T18:54:41","slug":"mens-basketball-set-for-showdown-with-no-22-msu-denver","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/?p=84187","title":{"rendered":"Men’s basketball set for showdown with No. 22 MSU Denver"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By ELI BLANKINSHIP<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tiger Media Network<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Fort Hays State University men\u2019s basketball team returns to GMC this evening against the No. 22 MSU Denver Roadrunners (9-1). This will be the second ranked opponent for the Tigers (6-3) this season. FHSU struggled against their first ranked opponent in the #3 ranked Washburn Ichabods<\/a> who defeated the Tigers 71-57.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Roadrunners are on a six-game win streak since their only loss of the season against Eastern New Mexico on November 20. Most notably, the Roadrunners defeated the No. 17 Saint Martin\u2019s University Saints on November 29 – the start of their six-game win streak.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThey\u2019re really good,\u201d said FHSU Head Coach Mark Johnson. \u201cThey\u2019re right up there with the other teams we\u2019ve played. They\u2019re very big inside with two 6-foot-9 guys that can really play, so it\u2019ll be a heck of a challenge for us.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Tigers have won two straight after their nailbiter 63-59 win versus the William Jewel Cardinals on the road and their dominant performance against the Bethel Threshers at home on Monday night<\/a>. FHSU is looking to win their third straight game against opponents ranked No. 20-25 in the NABC Poll.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI feel like either when we play Bethel or when we play MSU or Washburn, we always [need] to have the same mentality to win,\u201d said sophomore Dan Makuna. \u201c[We need to] be dominant on both sides of the floor in order to come out on top.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Roadrunners average 79.8 points per game compared to the Tigers’ 73.2. Both teams rank within the top 30 defenses in the nation with FHSU at 18th and MSU Denver at 27th.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe have to be tough, they\u2019ve got some size,\u201d said graduate student Kaleb Hammeke. \u201cWe have to play hard, rebound the ball well, defend, and knock some shots down.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

MSU Denver leads the series against the Tigers with a record of 15-12 dating back to 1997 when FHSU defeated the Roadrunners 78-61 on the road. At Gross Memorial Coliseum, the Tigers are 9-2 against MSU Denver.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

FHSU and MSU Denver tip off at 7 p.m. tonight inside Gross Memorial Coliseum. TMN will have the broadcast live on the MIAA Network<\/a> and game coverage on https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By ELI BLANKINSHIP Tiger Media Network The Fort Hays State University men\u2019s basketball team returns to GMC this evening against the No. 22 MSU Denver… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":142,"featured_media":83902,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":false,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3394,7349],"tags":[15753,11633,3466,664],"class_list":["post-84187","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mens-basketball-sports","category-sports","tag-eli-blankinship","tag-fhsu-mbb","tag-fhsu-mens-basketball","tag-mens-basketball"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/tigermedianet.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/MBB-Crawford.jpg?fit=1066%2C661","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84187","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/142"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=84187"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84187\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":84190,"href":"http:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84187\/revisions\/84190"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/83902"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=84187"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=84187"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=84187"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}