By FHSU SPORTS INFORMATION
Fort Hays State defeated Southwestern Oklahoma State 70-54 on Sunday (Nov. 14) to move to 2-0 on the season. The Tigers scored the first bucket of the game and never relinquished the lead the rest of the way for the second straight game.
FHSU built an 18-point lead by halftime, 35-17, and the lead reached its peak margin of 27 in the second half on a Nyjee Wright 3-point field goal with 10:37 to play. SWOSU scored the game’s final five points to get the margin back inside of 20.
Jared Vitztum had a big double-double performance of 19 points and 17 rebounds, while also handing out three assists. Wright had 14 points and Geoff Hamperian had 11 as both hit three 3-point field goals in the game. Kaleb Hammeke provided 13 points and had a team-high four assists.
The Tigers finished with their same-exact shooting percentage from the first game, hitting 25-of-58 shots from the field (43.1 percent). FHSU had 10 3-point field goals made on Sunday compared to nine on Saturday.
Jaylan Williams led the SWOSU scoring effort with 13 points on a 5-of-9 shooting effort from the field. FHSU held SWOSU to just 32.7 percent shooting overall.
The Tigers will get a strong test in their next game when they host nationally ranked Colorado School of Mines in Hays on Thursday (Nov. 18) at 7 pm. The Orediggers were tabbed No. 5 in the NABC Preseason Top 25 Poll but have started the season 0-2.
Saturday
Fort Hays State led wire-to-wire in a 71-59
season-opening win over Arkansas Tech on Saturday evening at Gross Memorial
Coliseum. The Tigers built an 11-point halftime lead and went on to win by 12.
FHSU moved to 3-0 all-time against Arkansas Tech with the win, now with a win
at home, on the road, and at a neutral site.
The Tigers took the lead with 19:10 remaining in the opening half and never
looked back. They opened the game on an 11-0 run and then matched Arkansas Tech
in points the remainder of the half to lead 34-23 at the break.
The lead grew as large as 15 points in the second half, but Arkansas Tech used
a 9-0 run to cut the lead to just six with 13:07 to play. They whittled it down
to four with 8:53 to go, but the Tigers used a 6-0 burst to get the lead back
to double figures with seven minutes to play. From that point, they were not
threatened again.
Bjarni
Jonsson provided the Tigers a big start to the season with a
double-double of 17 points and 12 rebounds. He was 7-of-14 from the field and
made three free throws. Jared
Vitztum, Quinten
Rock, newcomer Geoff
Hamperian all scored 11 each, while Nyjee
Wright cashed in 10 and led the team with five assists.
Vitztum was just one rebound shy of a double-double.
The difference in the game was the free-throw and 3-point line for FHSU. The
Tigers made nine 3-point field goals compared to six for the Wonder Boys, and
they made nine more free throws (12-3 advantage). Both teams shot adequate,
FHSU at 43.1 percent and ATU at 41.7 percent