FHSU Sports Information Department
Moving up to No. 2 in the NCAA region rankings this week, Fort Hays State looks to continue its push for the No. 1 seed in the Central Regional of the NCAA Tournament and stay alive for a possible MIAA title on Thursday night at Northeastern State in Tahlequah, Okla. The game is set for 5:30 pm at the NSU Event Center.
Ranked No. 9 in the nation, the Tigers enter the game at 23-3 overall and 17-3 in the MIAA. Missouri Western claimed at least a share of the MIAA Regular Season Championship on Wednesday night when it defeated Washburn, but the Tigers can remain within a game of the Griffons for first place with a win on Thursday. The Tigers now need to win both games this week on the road for any chance of sharing the conference regular season title, but also need a Missouri Western loss on Saturday.
Regardless of the conference situation, the Tigers look to stay in the hunt for the No. 1 seed in the Central Regional of the NCAA Tournament. With the second set of region rankings released on Wednesday, FHSU is among four teams battling for the top spot in the region, which includes Pittsburg State, Winona State and Missouri Western. Region rankings do not take conference standings into consideration and right now Pittsburg State, the third-place team in the MIAA standings, sits at No. 1 in the region. MIAA leading Missouri Western is No. 4 in the region, after holding the No. 1 spot last week. All of the top four teams in the region went unbeaten last week, so it is evident that the mathematical formulas for the rankings has all four teams very close.
The Tigers defeated Northeastern State earlier this season in Hays by a score of 68-47. The RiverHawks enter Thursday’s game at 8-18 overall and 5-15 in the MIAA. Northeastern State mathematically locked up a berth into the MIAA Tournament on Wednesday night when both Lindenwood and Northwest Missouri State lost. NSU currently sits in 11th in the conference standings.
Chelsea Mason leads a balanced scoring attack at 13.3 points per game, while Jill Faxon averages 12.5, Beth Bohuslavsky averages 11.5, and Paige Lunsford adds 10.8 per game. Nikola Kacperska is the team leader in steals with 48 and five of the top six scorers on the team have at least 40 steals for the season. FHSU continues to lead the nation in turnover margin (+10.9) and fewest turnovers per game (9.4).