Griffons rally to win regional title over FHSU

By RAEGAN NEUFELD

Photos by LOREN McQUEENY

The Fort Hays State University women’s basketball team did its best to push the clock to midnight.

But in the end, Missouri Western State University continued its Cinderella season with its third upset in a row at the NCAA Division II Central Region tournament at Gross Memorial Coliseum in Hays.

The Griffons’ magical run continued with a 70-69 victory over the Tigers in the regional title game.

“It was an unbelievable game,” said Missouri Western head coach Candi Whitaker. “Fort Hays is an incredible program and played a super tough game. The program (Coach Hobson) has built is something we work to beat. I could not be more proud of this bunch. They just continue to find ways to bring it and play high-level basketball. The resilience and fight they showed is something I’ll never forget.”

Missouri Western opened the regional with a dominating 111-77 win over No. 2-seeded Southwestern Oklahoma State University before following that up with a victory over No. 6-seeded University of Nebraska-Kearney.

Early in Monday night’s title game, though, the Tigers had everything clicking and looked to win their first regional crown under Hobson in their third attempt.

Fort Hays jumped out to an early lead, scoring on their first four possessions and ending the first quarter with a 20-7. No. 7-seeded Missouri Western’s offense picked up more in the second quarter, but the Tigers still held the lead at halftime, 38-23. 

The Griffons slowly began to chip away at the deficit. Missouri Western (24-9) got within two points and eventually tied the game at 60 apiece with just more than three minutes left to play. 

After a foul followed immediately by a technical foul against the Tigers, Missouri Western sank four free throws in a row to lead by four. 

Fort Hays fought its way back to a one-point lead at 69-68 with 11 seconds left, but Missouri Western was able to drive in and get the last bucket of the game.

“I thought we got a little better in the second quarter, but still not great,” said Whitaker, whose team trailed by 21 at one point in the first half. “We started to execute better and started to get some things at the rim, but it wasn’t until the second half that I felt we were in sync and playing like we had been in this tournament.”

Missouri Western upset three teams to reach its first Elite 8 since 1995. Entering the regional tourney, the Griffons had won only three of their last nine games.

“It was a tough one to lose, obviously,” Fort Hays head coach Tony Hobson said. “We’ve struggled playing with the lead most of the season. We have a tendency to let teams get back in it, which we did today. We’ve had a tendency to come back and win anyway. We were ahead with 11 seconds and we needed one stop to continue but we couldn’t get it.”

Fort Hays was led by Katie Wagner, who had 17 points and 10 rebounds. Also in double digits was Olivia Hollenbeck, scoring 14 points and adding four rebounds. Jaden Hobbs added nine points and four rebounds. 

Fellow senior Whitney Randall chipped in seven points and was second on the team in rebounds with seven. Cydney Bergmann finished with five points. 

Hobbs and Wagner were named to the all-tournament team.

The Tigers finished the season with an overall record of 30-4 and a conference record of 19-3. They did what no team in the MIAA had done before and won the regular-season title for the second year in a row, and added the conference tournament championship as well.

“It’s unfortunate because our kids played as hard as they could,” said Hobson, whose team had defeated the Griffons twice this season. “It’s very disappointing to have your season end on one possession, but sometimes that’s how it is. I told our kids that this is going to be painful for quite a while for the kids that are invested in the program, which is everyone.

“But, when the smoke clears, they’re going to realize that they had a great year. We won 30 ball games, which is hard to do when you schedule 28. We won two championships. We set our sights so high that if we didn’t win it all we were going to be disappointed. When you put it on the line, you set yourself up to be really, really hurt if things don’t work out, and that’s what happened. But if you don’t do that, you don’t win anything either.”

Jaelyn Haggard led Missouri Western, finishing with 19 points after only scoring two in the first half. Following her was Corbyn Cunningham with 17. The senior was 7 of 8 on field goals and grabbed five rebounds. Both players were chosen for the all-tournament team, and Brionna Budgetts was named the tournament’s Most Outstanding Player.

“I think this team has been building for a while, as far as playing better,” Whitaker said. “It’s just been chipping away at understanding what makes us good. Towards the end of the season, I could see it just clicking more and more. We weren’t winning at the end of the season, but we felt like we were putting ourselves in the position to win. This team just continues to buy into the team mentality, and they’ve just been a joy to coach.”

The Griffons travel to Birmingham, Ala., to compete in the Elite Eight beginning March 21.

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