HAYS, Kan. – Fort Hays State defeated Lindenwood 84-66 on Thursday night (Feb. 18) in Hays to remain in second place in the MIAA standings. The No. 10 ranked Tigers steadily pulled away from the Lions, outscoring the opposition by five in the first quarter, eight in the second quarter, and nine in the third quarter. The Tigers moved to 22-3 overall and 16-3 in the MIAA with the win.
Lindenwood led twice briefly in the early going before FHSU on an 11-0 run to build an eight-point lead. An 8-0 run to open the second quarter pushed the Tiger lead out to 13 points, the margin they eventually led by at halftime. Lindenwood cut the lead down to 10 twice in the third quarter, but a 10-0 burst by FHSU to close the quarter extended the lead to 22 heading into the fourth quarter. FHSU enjoyed its largest lead of 25 twice in the fourth quarter before the final margin settled at 18.
The Tigers used a balanced scoring effort with five players in double figures. Chelsea Mason led the way with 14 points while Jill Faxon had 13. Taylor Chandler and Beth Bohuslavsky each had 11 and Carly Heim produced a new career high with 10. Paige Lunsford and Mason pulled down a team-high six rebounds each while Bohuslavsky dished out a team-high four assists.
Bri Wilber led the Lions with 16 points while Kylie Ferguson had 12 and CeCe Rapp had 11. The Tiger defense held Kassidy Gengenbacher, a player that averages 18 points per game, to just four on 1-of-5 shooting.
The Tigers forced 24 turnovers out of the Lions (18 were steals) while committing just nine. FHSU scored 29 points off turnovers, compared to just four for Lindenwood. That helped offset a 34.4 percent shooting effort from the field as a team. Lindenwood committed 29 fouls, which produced 47 free-throw attempts for FHSU. The Tigers went 70.2 percent from the line, hitting 33 of those attempts.
The Tigers play their final regular season home game on Saturday (Feb. 20) when they host Lincoln University for senior day at Gross Memorial Coliseum. Game time is set for 2 pm.