BY CHRISTIAN PHILLIPS
PHOTO BY ALLISON SCHWEIZER
Fort Hays State Closed out Emporia State 86-78 on Saturday behind Marcus Cooper. Cooper finished with 23 points in 26 minutes.
Brady Werth found himself in early foul trouble as he logged just three minutes of play, along with one point in the first half. In Werth’s absence, Cooper led the way with 12 points in 14 first-half minutes. Cooper also left with two personal fouls with 3:39 left. Cooper finished the half 6-8 from the field.
Emporia State entered the double bonus early after FHSU struggled with foul trouble, which resulted in 18 free-throw attempts for the Hornets. They would finish 13-18 at 72.2% and Fort Hays State would go 5-8 at 62.5%. Fort Hays entered the half up 39-36.
“They run a lot of sets, but I really wasn’t worried about them and I thought we did a fine job against them,” said head coach of the Tigers, Mark Johnson. “When their sets aren’t working they start spreading you out and they really put their head down and start driving it.
“They are just are too hard to stop and it’s hard to play without fouling. Number 12 (Julius Jackson) and number 2 (Malik Hluchoweckyj) were just hard for us to handle.”
Werth started the second half even though early foul trouble kept him out for a majority of the first. Werth played 12 minutes in the second half and contributed six more points. Werth battled foul trouble once again as he sat out with four personal fouls around 10:00 minutes left in the second.
“We had to play a majority of the game without Brady. Brady struggled the first couple of times he touched it in those traps and I think that’s where both of his turnovers came,” said Johnson.
Marcus Cooper exited the game fairly quickly as he picked up his third foul in under a minute. Devin Davis would sub-in for Cooper, which led to a Davis 7-0 run. Davis finished 5-9 from the field with 13 points. He left the game after picking up his first personal foul with 14:04 left in regulation.
“Devin had 13 points in 14 minutes. He can really score, but he just has to get better at other things,” said Johnson. “He gives us energy and he’s a guy that put the ball in the basket when you need it.”
Both teams shot 16 three-point attempts and the Hornets snagged eight compared to the Tigers seven. Kyler Kinnnamon went 8-8 from the line, six of those coming in clutch late down the stretch. Quick shots put up by Emporia State just weren’t enough as the Tigers put the Hornets away late from the free-throw line.
“Kyler was just huge, you get fouled late in the game and people just expect you to make them and it’s not easy to do,” said Johnson of his senior point guard. “When you miss them it changes the outcome of the game and Kyler went up there and made six free throws in the last 35 seconds and sealed the win for us.”
The Tigers improve their overall record to 6-3 and 2-0 in MIAA Conference play.
“It’s great that we started at home and it’s just too hard of a league to dig yourself into a hole at home and to expect to make up ground on the road because it’s just not gonna happen.”
You can catch the Tigers back in action on December 17th against Bethel College in Gross Memorial Collisium.
