BY CORA TASSET
PHOTO BY ALLIE SCHWEIZER
FHSU Tiger women’s basketball returned to Hays Friday versus Adams State University (0-3). Fort Hays won their first home game opener 79-39 against the Grizzlies.
All eyes were on the Tigers tonight as they are returning from a great season last year winning the regular-season MIAA title and the Conference Tournament championship.
The FHSU basketball team has started off well with a 2-0 season so far competing in the Hillyard Tip-Off Classic this past weekend against Minnesota Duluth and Concordia-St. Paul.
“Tomorrow will be a tough ball game, but I think our two games the first weekend were both really tough games, so I think we should be ready for it,” Head Coach of the Tigers, Tony Hobson said.
The Tigers quickly took the lead against the Grizzlies in the first quarter 13-10. Fort Hays State finished off leading the first half against ASU 33-15.
At halftime, Belle Barbieri (25) played a total of 13 minutes in the first half and put up seven rebounds, two assists, and seven points. She finished with 10 points and 10 rebounds and four assists.
“It was good we had a full crowd, and of course you always have a little bit of nerves coming out but once we got going we had a lot of fun,” Barbieri said.
Lanie Page (3) joined Barbieri playing a total of 16 first-half minutes putting up eight points, two rebounds, three assists, three steals, and eight points. Barbieri was 3-3 in field goals and Page was 3-3 in three-pointers. Page finished with a team-high 11 points.
“I have really gotten to like defense a lot just because I know that I can control that, and some nights I’m not making shots and they just aren’t falling for me,” Page said. “I thought we played really well, but we do need to keep working on a few things on the offensive and defensive side and tune up a little bit before tomorrow.”
The Tigers defended the court in the third quarter only allowing Adams State to score six points putting FHSU up 50-21.
“Everyone likes to score, but I like to focus more on defense and rebounding because I know that is something that I can control,” Barbieri said.
Page finishes off the game with two rebounds, four assists, four steals, and eleven points.
“I think for the most part the girls played well, everybody played hard and we had a good chance to get everybody in for a lot of minutes,” Hobson said. “I thought our bench did a great job some of them haven’t got to play a lot yet this year, but they really took advantage of this opportunity.”
Fort Hays State won and moved their record up to 3-0. The Tigers will play again tomorrow evening against Cameron with tip-off at 5 p.m.