By FHSU SPORTS INFORMATION
ST. JOSEPH, Mo. – A hot start over the first four minutes of the game turned cold the remainder of the first half in a 62-55 loss at Missouri Western on Tuesday (Jan. 10). FHSU trailed by 12 at halftime and made two second half bursts at the Griffons that came up short. FHSU is now 11-5 overall, 6-4 in the MIAA, while MWSU moved to 8-6 overall, 4-4 in the MIAA.
The Tigers hit four of their first six shots of the game and led 10-7 before hitting just two of their final 20 shots (10 percent) over the final 16 minutes of the first half. The Griffons finished the first half on a 20-5 run to take a 27-15 lead into halftime.
The Tigers eventually trailed by 17 twice in the second half, the latest occurrence with about 13 minutes to go in the game, before going on an 11-0 run to get the Griffon lead down to just six at 40-34 with nine and half minutes to play. Elijah Nnanabu had six of the Tiger points in the stretch. However, the Griffons stopped the run with four straight points and pushed their lead back to 10.
With two minutes to play, the Griffons had extended their lead back out to 15 points, but the Tigers had one more burst to make things interesting late. Lucas Hammeke was a big spark for the Tigers playing just the final two minutes of the game off the bench. He caused havoc defensively as the Tigers put on a full-court press and scored eight of the team’s 16 points over the final two minutes. Six of his points came in an 11-2 run by the Tigers over a matter of 1:22, cutting the Griffon lead back down to six with 36 seconds to play. After a pair of MWSU free throws, Nnanabu hit a 3-point field goal to cut the lead to five. But, the Griffons put the game out of reach with another pair of free throws creating the final margin of seven points.
Kaleb Hammeke, who had 10 of the 15 points for the Tigers at halftime, finished with 16. Nnanabu was the only other Tiger in double figures, scoring 13 in the second half to finish with 15. Lucas Hammeke and Iyen Enaruna each had eight points and Enaruna led the Tigers in rebounds with 10. After shooting just 23.1 percent in the first half, the Tigers improved to 34.5 percent for the game but was still their low mark for a conference game this season. FHSU was just 4-of-23 (17.4 percent) from 3-point range.
JaRon Thames led the scoring effort for MWSU with 15 points. Julius Dixon (13) and Reese Glover (11) also reached double figures. The Griffons were 9-of-16 (56.3 percent) beyond the 3-point line, despite shooting just 11-of-29 inside the arc.
The Tigers will be back at home on Saturday (Jan. 14) to take on Nebraska-Kearney. Tipoff will be at 4 p.m., which follows the women’s contest at 2 p.m.