BY CAYDEN SANDERS
PHOTOS BY LAURYN BECKER AND RAEGAN NEUFELD
What better way to start the beginning of a season than with a tournament? Fort Hays State University hosted a portion of the MIAA/GAC Challenge – a conference crossover tournament where teams from the MIAA competed against teams from the Great American Conference.
FHSU started the year with a 71-59 victory on Saturday over the Arkansas Tech Wonder Boys – a team that will be in the central region of the NCAA tournament come March.
“Being our first game of the year you don’t know how your team is going to respond. I think my team responded well. We played a solid team that was athletic and physical. It was a good win for us,” Head Coach Mark Johnson said.
Fort Hays jumped out to an 11-0 lead within the first five minutes of the game; however, Arkansas Tech answered back with ten unanswered to pull within one, 11-10. The Tigers and Wonder Boys continued to go back and forth in the first half but the Tigers held the lead for all of the first half of the game and led Arkansas Tech 34-23 at halftime.
Arkansas Tech kept the game close in the final half, but Bjarni Jonsson get a key one and-one, and then collected another foul on the next offensive possession giving the Tigers a little bit more breathing room with a 56-46 lead. Jared Vitztim found Geoff Hamperian for a lay-up, causing the Wonder Boys to take a timeout with less than seven minutes to play.
Johnson praised Arkansas Tech’s point guard play for keeping the Wonder Boys in the game.
“[Czar] Perry is one of the best point guards we are going to play. These good teams are going to make a run at you and you can’t go away and hide, but when they cut it close we responded and I am proud of how we responded,” Johnson said.
Key baskets late from Jonsson, Hamperian and Vitztum secured the game for FHSU.
Jonsson finished his career night of scoring with 17 points while Vitztum, Hamperian and Quinten Rock scored 11 points each.
“It was a good game. [The] coaches have been talking to me about getting rebounds and I just went out there and got the rebounds we needed.” Jonsson said.
Fort Hays looked to improve one more game in the starting weekend of college hoops in their game on Sunday against Southwestern Oklahoma State, who was coming off a loss to Emporia State from the night before. The Tigers again led wire-to-wire, winning 70-54.
This matchup between the Tigers and Bulldogs started out cold as both teams did not score until Jared Vitztum hit a three-point shot three minutes into the game. However, FHSU was able to pull away from the Bulldogs and led 35-17 at halftime.
The second half started out hot for the Tigers with five early points. The second half went back and forth for both teams and the Bulldogs tried to claw their way back into the game. But the trio of Kaleb Hammeke, Nyjee Wright, and Vitztum said otherwise as they carried the Tigers scoring to a win over the Bulldogs.
Vitztum led the way with 19 points while Wright followed with 14 and Hammeke wasn’t far behind with 13. Vitztum ended the day with a double-double, snagging 19 rebounds on the day.
The Tigers are back in action at 7:00 p.m. this Thursday taking on Colorado School of Mines in Gross Memorial Coliseum.