Story by RAEGAN NEUFELD Photos by KADEN DEPPERSCHMIDT
Tiger Media Network
Baskets on offense and stops on defense were hard to come by for the Tigers against Pittsburg State in the MIAA tournament semifinals, resulting in a 69-51 loss.
FHSU was held scoreless for the first eight and a half minutes. The Gorillas, however, made four 3-pointers in the first six and went on a 19-0 run to start the game. PSU stayed hot for the rest of the game, making 10 more 3-pointers to go 14-20, good for a scorching 70%. The Tigers never found their rhythm, ending the game shooting 33.9%. Only three of their made shots were 3-pointers.
“Really just the perfect storm against us there,” FHSU Head Coach Mark Johnson. “They started off just phenomenal, shot the ball really well. Anytime we had any type of breakdown, they made us pay and then we just couldn’t get the ball in the basket. Then it just kind of snowballed from there.”
The Tigers (23-7) still managed 12 steals, and forced six more turnovers from the Gorillas (21-9) for a total of 18. They also pulled down just two fewer rebounds, 29 to PSU’s 31, including 14 offensive boards. Johnson commended his team for these aspects of the game.
“We couldn’t afford to have a 3 of 19 kind of night, and we definitely couldn’t afford to do that tonight with how good they were,” he said. “Disappointing, but I thought our guys tried. They battled all year and they’ve been a great group to coach.”
Kaleb Hammeke led the Tigers with 10 points, eight of which came in the second half. He also recorded five steals and four rebounds. Conner Landell and R.J. Crawford combined for 16 of the team’s 22 bench points with eight each. Landell also led FHSU with seven rebounds, five coming on the offensive end.
The Gorillas were led by Deshaun English and Jeramy Shaw, who each finished with 17 points. R.J. Forney and Tanner Mans were close behind with 15 and 12, going 5-5 and 4-4 from beyond the arc. They will take on perennial power and winner of seven of the last eight MIAA tournaments, Northwest Missouri State, in the championship game on Sunday at 3:30 p.m.
The game was the third straight semifinal appearance for the Tigers. Before that, the team finished .500 in the 2019-20 and 2020-21 seasons, and lost in the conference quarterfinals in 2018-19.
Hammeke and Bjarni Jonsson, who have been in the program since the 2019-20 season, spoke about the progress the team has made in their time.
“We’ve spent the last four years together and it hurts to come up this short this many years in a row, but you learn from it every year,” Hammeke said. “Every year we talk about how it’s in our hands and we need to keep it in our hands because it hasn’t worked the other way around.”
“I’ve got great teammates,” Jonsson added. “It makes it all so much more fun.”
The Tigers now wait to see if they will be selected for the Central Region tournament next week, a tournament they’ve just missed the last two years.
“(PSU) is one team we didn’t match up well with,” Johnson said. “Three of our losses are against one team, and this is an NCAA tournament team, 100 percent. It would be a travesty if this group doesn’t get in.”
The selection show will take place at 10 p.m. on Sunday on the NCAA website.
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