By FHSU SPORTS INFORMATION
LIBERTY, Mo. – After trailing by 12 at halftime, Fort Hays State made a big second half charge to get past William Jewell and held on for a 63-59 win on Saturday (Dec. 14) at the Mabee Center in a battle of two schools that made the NCAA Tournament last year. FHSU improved to 5-3 overall, while William Jewell fell to 4-6 overall and now 1-4 against MIAA schools this season.
Even though Kaleb Hammeke scored the dagger basket with five seconds to play and put FHSU up four points, the Tigers went 7:26 without scoring before the late bucket and still held on. The Tigers really put their clamps in the opposition defensively, holding the Cardinals to just four points over the final 10 minutes of the game. The Tigers held the Cardinals to just 2-of-9 shooting from the field and forced four turnovers in the final 10 minutes.
The Tigers had a tough time slowing down Jordan Jermain of William Jewell early, who had 20 of his game-high 25 points in the first half. He hit his first four 3-point shots of the game and made seven of his first eight field-goal attempts overall. He helped the Cardinals shoot a blazing-hot 62.5 percent from the field in the first half, including a 6-of-10 effort beyond the 3-point line to build a 41-29 lead on the Tigers by halftime. William Jewell led by as many as 15 points in the first half.
Fort Hays State immediately began to chip away early in the second half, opening on a 10-2 run to get the lead down to four in the first three minutes of play. William Jewell stunted the run twice with a 3-point field goal and later a 3-point play to get the lead back up to eight, but FHSU continued to whittle the margin down. Shaun Riley scored eight points in a 13-4 burst by the Tigers to take the lead for the first time since a pair of one-point advantages early on. Dan Mukuna capped the burst with an uncontested layup, putting the Tigers up 54-53.
The Cardinals would go on top just one more time with a basket at 10:23, but Muhamed Kante made a crafty layup with 9:20 that gave the Tigers a lead they would not relinquish the rest of the way. It started a 7-0 run by the Tigers with the final five points coming from Kaleb Hammeke. A step back jumper and then an old-fashioned 3-point play put the Tigers up six at 61-55 with 7:31 to play.
That is when the game turned into a defensive grinder the rest of the way. William Jewell snapped a 5:30 scoring drought with a basket at the 4:53 mark, bringing the lead down to four. The Cardinals got another with 59 seconds to go to get the lead down to two. However, Kyle Grill would get a huge offensive rebound on the Tigers’ next possession and then Hammeke put the game away on a driving layup with five seconds to play to make the margin four again.
FHSU outscored William Jewell 34-18 in the second half. The Tigers held the Cardinals to just 34.8 percent shooting in the second frame, including just a 1-of-7 effort beyond the 3-point line. FHSU was shooting 62 percent from the field in the second half up until Hammeke’s 3-point play at the 7:31 mark. After that, the Tigers cooled to 48.3 percent in the second half due to going just 1-of-8 from the field in the final seven minutes of the game.
Hammeke scored the final seven points of the game for FHSU, all within the last nine minutes. That pushed him to high-point honors for the Tigers with 11, though he led a very balanced effort that saw five players reach double figures. Grill, Riley, R.J. Crawford, and Traejon Davis all had 10 points each. All nine Tigers that played scored. Riley led a plus-seven rebounding effort for the Tigers with nine and Hammeke dished out a team-high four assists.
Joining Jermain (25 points) in double figures for the Cardinals were Luke Jordan with 11 and Bryce Mitchell with 10.
Fort Hays State will take just a day off and return to action Monday night at Gross Memorial Coliseum when it takes on Bethel College at 7 p.m. FHSU will be at home for its next three games, all within the span of seven days before the holiday break.