BY RAEGAN NEUFELD
PHOTO BY HALEIGH RABER
Fort Hays State men’s basketball team had its six-game win streak ended on Saturday night in the MIAA tournament semifinals with a 55-51 loss to the University of Central Oklahoma.
Previously this season, FHSU lost to UCO 66-61 and 66-51.They were on track for a different outcome, leading for over 30 minutes of the game and by eight at halftime, but were outscored 33-21 in the second half.
“I just feel bad for these guys,” FHSU Head Coach Mark Johnson said. “No one deserves these last two years to be moving on and having success, and for whatever reason, it just didn’t happen for them the way they wanted it. [It was a] great effort and I just wish we could’ve done more.”
The Tigers (21-9) started the game on an 8-0 run and maintained their lead for the entire first half, shooting 57.1 percent from the field. That percentage dropped to 43.5 for the whole game, but was still better than UCO’s 39.2 percent. However, the Bronchos out-rebounded FHSU 37-26, recorded two more steals and had one less turnover.
After four players scored in double digits in their quarterfinal win on Friday, the Tigers again had a balanced scoring attack. Kaleb Hammeke led the team with 11 points, followed by Gabe Pieschl who had nine. Bjarni Jonsson and Iyen Enaruna each scored eight. According to Johnson, this balance was important, especially with Hammeke being guarded closely on offense and then having to defend UCO’s leading scorer, Jaden Wells
“As hard as they made it on him, other guys had to step up,” he said. “I thought Gabe really played well, made some shots for us and gave us offense. Bjarni and Elijah [Nnanabu] were really good again today.”
UCO (26-4) was led by Wells who had a game-high 21 points. The next leading scorer for the Bronchos was Cam Givens with 16.
This year marks the second in a row the Tigers have made the conference tournament and been the #3 seed. Prior to last season, FHSU missed the MIAA Tournament in 2019-20 and 2020-21 due to tiebreaker situations. Hammeke said their success came from playing hard and getting defensive wins.
“We know if we play our game we can play with anyone in the nation,” Hammeke said. “It’s going to be a battle every night but we can beat anyone. Next year, whoever comes in and whoever stays, we’ll just instill the same thing in them and hope to be right back here but on the winning side next year.”
The NCAA will announce the teams who advance to the Central Region tournament tonight after all DII conference tournaments are concluded.