By FHSU SPORTS INFORMATION
Fort Hays State Men’s Basketball heads to Missouri this week for a pair of MIAA contests. The trip begins in St. Joseph on Thursday at Missouri Western. Game time is 7:30 pm, which follows the women’s contest at 5:30. FHSU enters at 7-9 overall, 1-7 in the MIAA, while MWSU is 7-11 overall, 3-4 in the MIAA.
The Tigers look to gain traction in a conference full of parity this year. The Tigers are currently in 13th place in the conference standings, but sit just two games back in the win column of ninth place. Only five teams have five or more wins in MIAA play so far this year. No team in the MIAA has an overall win percentage of less than .389, with 7-11 being the worst overall record right now owned by Missouri Western, Central Oklahoma, and Newman.
Looking ahead, the Tigers have seven conference games remaining against teams currently with sub-.500 overall records, compared to just four against teams with winning records. The path ahead also includes a make-up non-conference game with Kansas Wesleyan in Hays this coming Monday (Jan. 27). Seven of the eight games the Tigers have played so far in conference have been against teams with above-.500 overall records.
Jared Vitztum leads the Tigers at 13 points and 7.5 rebounds per game. He had a career-high 21 points in Fort Hays State’s most recent game, a 75-72 loss at home to Washburn. Devin Davis is the only other Tiger averaging double figures in scoring at 10.9 points per game. Jake Hutchings, Nyjee Wright, and Aaron Nicholson are all just shy of 10 points per game, all averaging at least 9.7 per game. Nicholson had a season-high 17 in the loss to Washburn this past Saturday.
Tyrell Carroll leads Missouri Western in scoring and assists, averaging 17.8 and 5.9 per game respectively. Tyus Millhollin also averages at least 15 points per game, just north of that mark at 15.1 per game.
FHSU owns a three-game win streak in the series history with MWSU, which dates back to the 2016-17 season. The Tigers and Griffons will meet just one time in the regular season for the seventh-straight year, which dates back to the 2013-14 season. FHSU won the last meeting between the teams in St. Joseph in 2016-17 by six points, before winning meetings the last two years in Hays by 19 (2017-18) and 10 (2018-19).