FHSU Sports Information Department
ST. JOSEPH, Mo. – Fort Hays State had its eight-game win streak snapped at the hands of Missouri Western on Thursday night. The Griffons knocked off a ranked Tiger team in St. Joseph for the second straight year, last year by just two points when the Tigers were No. 3 and the Griffons were No. 5. The Tigers moved to 14-3 overall, 5-3 in the MIAA, while the Griffons are now 13-5 overall, 5-4 in the MIAA.
The Tigers had brief leads at the start of each half, owning the advantage for a total of only 52 seconds for the game. Dry spells offensively and 16 turnovers plagued the Tigers and the Griffons used a couple of big runs to hold the advantage for nearly the entire game. FHSU shot just 29.3 percent from the field for the game, its fourth time under 30 percent this year, but has found a way to go 2-2 in those performances (the two wins were over Washburn and Emporia State at home). The 16 turnovers was four over the season average for FHSU. The Tigers are now just 1-3 in MIAA road contests so far this year.
After FHSU made the first bucket of the game, MWSU went on an 8-0 run to take a six-point lead. The advantage grew to nine before FHSU ended the first quarter on a 4-0 run to leave MWSU up just five heading into the second quarter. A Nikola Kacperska 3-pointer cut the lead down to two immediately to open the second quarter, capping a 7-0 run for FHSU, but MWSU held a narrow margin until Jill Faxon finally tied the game on a pair of free-throws with 39 seconds remaining in the half. But the Griffons took a 30-28 advantage to the locker room with a pair of free-throws from Chelsea Dewey, their top scorer, right before the break.
Kacperska’s third 3-point field goal of the game, which capped all nine of her points, gave the Tigers another brief lead at 31-30 to open the second half, but just like the start of the first half the Griffons used another big run for separation. MWSU went on a 10-0 burst to take a nine-point lead and that was the margin by the third quarter’s end. The Tigers slowly chipped away at the lead in the fourth quarter, getting the lead down to five twice with the latest occurrence at the 4:23 mark. But a rash of free-throw misses by the Tigers allowed the Griffons to pull away and a Dewey 3-point field goal at the 1:37 mark was the dagger, extending the lead to 12. The Griffons scored the last three points of the game to win by 14.
Kacperska and Kacey Kennett were the high scorers for FHSU, each with nine points. Faxon added eight, doing the majority of her damage with a 6-of-6 effort at the free-throw line. Tatyana Legette had seven points and added a team-high six rebounds. Taylor Rolfs had a team-high four assists.
Dewey led the Griffons in scoring with 23 points on 6-of-11 shooting from the field, including a 3-of-4 effort beyond the 3-point line. She was 8-of-10 at the free-throw line. Julia Torres added 15 points and Dwanisha Tate added 11.
The Tigers look for a better result on Saturday (Jan. 21) when they play at Northwest Missouri State in Maryville, Mo. Game time is set for 1:30 pm.