BY CAYDEN SANDERS
The Fort Hays State University men’s and women’s basketball teams had one final game in the regular season against rival Nebraska Kearney on the road Saturday. Both teams faced difficulty games for different reasons, but the Tigers came away with a split of the day.
In the women’s game, the Tigers hung in with the Lopers for the first half, but in the second half FHSU had issues on both sides of the ball and were unable to play their style of basketball. UNK’s experience also played a factor, as the Lopers play four super-seniors who have won a total of 114 games as a group. UNK won the game, 64-48.
“We just couldnt find a rhythm in the game we were close and then out of it for a while climbed back in but in the second half of the game we just couldnt get anything going,” FHSU Head Coach Tony Hobson said.
After the game was done and settled, the MIAA Championship tournament seedings came out, and the Tigers drew the sixth seed and will play No. 3 Missouri Western State at 8:15 p.m. in the nightcap game on Friday.
Hobson talked about what his team needs to do going into the tournament.
“We need to be more confident with the ball and be strong,” he said. “Many times today, I saw shots that we normally would not take in a game and its hard when you can’t find good looks and so that’s what the team will work on next week.”
For the FHSU men, playing against Nebraska Kearney was difficult. The Lopers shut down the Tigers interior offense, denying cutting lanes and the interior passes. FHSU Head Coach Mark Johnson spoke about his team’s matchup difficulties en-route to a narrow 45-42 victory.
“For some reason is a tough fit for us, today they shut down the interior for us,” Johnson said. “So we had to rely on out perimeter and we have had issues with it all season and it showed. Going into the MIAA, we will see different styles that might suit us better.”
With their win, FHSU earned the No. 3 seed in the MIAA Championship, and will face Rogers State at 2:15 p.m. on Friday.
Looking ahead to the NCAA regionals, the women will likely need to win out at the MIAA Conference Championships to attend the NCAA Tournament as they were 10th in the most recent regional rankings, while the men need to string a couple of wins together to solidify their chance to go to the NCAA Tournament in March after ranking eighth in the last set of regional rankings.
Stay tuned to Tiger Media Network for more Fort Hays State basketball coverage from the MIAA Championships this week.
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