Story by RAEGAN NEUFELD Photos by PARKER NISBETH
Tiger Media Network
While the lead changed hands five times over the first nine minutes of Saturday’s game between Fort Hays and Washburn, the Tigers stayed behind from that moment on and couldn’t quite catch up.
#11 R.J. Crawford Getting before the game. 
#1 Kyle Grill with a floater over Washburn 
Kaleb Hammeke Shooting a Freethrow after a personal foul 
Kyle Grill before a freethrow 
Kaleb adn Lucas Hammeke during a timeout 
#23 Shaun Riley shooting a freethrow 
Kaleb Hammeke Shooting a Freethrow after a personal foul 
#5 Kaleb Hammeke shooting a mid-range shot
FHSU (4-3, 1-1) fell to the No. 3/4 Ichabods 71-57 after battling all game long. The Tigers had a tall task on defense against the hot shooting of Washburn. The Ichabods finished the game shooting 47.4% from the field, but shot 56% in the first half and, at one poin,t were shooting over 70%. Though their largest lead of the half was 15, the Tigers pulled within eight heading into the locker room. The closest FHSU got in the second half was five, but Washburn’s lead consistently stayed between eight and 15 points.
“I thought we kept competing,” FHSU Head Coach Mark Johnson said. “I thought we really tried in the second half. R.J. had a hard time playing tonight with his back, and then Kaleb got hurt in the first half and he tried to play, but he couldn’t really move. That’s a lot stacked against us and I give our guys credit. I thought they kept trying to battle and compete.”
Turnovers were costly for the Tigers. They gave up 19 on the night, 12 of which came from Washburn steals. The Ichabods were able to score 18 points as a result, as well as 20 fast break points.
“That’s 19 times we couldn’t get a shot off,” Johnson said. “And how many of those 19 turnovers led to their breakaway layups? I thought our effort was pretty good. I thought we guarded okay outside of (Brayden Shorter). We let him get loose a little bit. The only time I thought we showed a lack of toughness was with the ball and created some turnovers.”
FHSU ended the night 40% from the field. Sophomore Kyle Grill led the way with 16 points, scoring nine on 3-pointers.
“Although the loss hurts, I think we have a lot of things to improve on as well,” he said. “So, we learned a lot of things from the game today, although we lost. It was a good game for us to play.”
Graduate student Kaleb Hammeke was the only other Tiger to score in double figures, finishing with 12 points and four assists.
“We’re excited to see them again,” he said of Washburn. “We’ve made mistakes we wish we wouldn’t have and we’ll keep working. We know we’ve got to get better. We know we’ve got to get tougher. They’re an incredible team and incredibly well-coached, so they play hard. They play tough, and it’s good for our guys to see just how good people are in this league.”
Brayden Shorter led the Ichabods with 26 points and seven rebounds. He was followed by Jack Bachelor who had 11 points and six rebounds. Michael Keegan and Andrew Orr were the next top scorers for Washburn, finishing with 11 and 10 points, respectively.
The Tigers have a short break before traveling to Liberty, Mo., to play William Jewel on Saturday. They then finish the 2024 calendar year with three games at home before Christmas.
“If we can get guys back to at least 80 or 90 percent, that would help so much,” Grill said. Kaleb got hurt tonight, R.J.’s been hurt all season, Traejon (Davis) is still hurt and Lucas, I mean, it just hurts a lot. But, getting healthy will help and then the turnovers and just being confident.”