By MAYAN PAZ
Tiger Media Network
This weekend, the Fort Hays State University women’s basketball team continues its four-game road trip. FHSU (16-2, 7-2) is currently No. 8 in the Coaches Poll and No. 22 in the Media Poll and also ranked third in the nation in assists per game, handing out 18.9 assists per contest.
Junior point guard Brooke Loewe is also ranked third in assists with 7.3 per game. The Tigers have three different players averaging more than 14 points per game: Olivia Hollenbeck, Katie Wagner, and Talexa Weeter.
Last weekend, FHSU won two important games on the road, beating Rogers State 60-50 and Central Oklahoma 81-72. Weeter helped lead the Tigers from the bench, scoring 17 and 23 points against RSU and UCO, while Hollenbeck added 18 and 22 points, respectively.
Against Rogers State, the Tigers had to play without Loewe, who suffered from a minor injury. She did return against UCO. This was an unfamiliar zone for the Tigers, playing without their lead playmaker.
“Thursday, we played without Brooke, so that was a bit of an adjustment. She hurt her ankle on Tuesday, so we didn’t know if we’d have her or not,” FHSU Head Coach Talia Kahrs said. “So I thought we did a good job of adjusting to that adversity, playing different people at point guard and playing different offenses. I thought we battled something that was a difficult task.”
Usually, after a road trip, the team returns home for its next games; however, FHSU has another two-game road trip that stretches over four days. The Tigers play Washburn and Central Missouri on Thursday and Saturday. For the players, that brings challenges outside of the court, such as being away from school the second week in a row and having to make sure they are not falling behind academically.
“We’re missing a lot of class these first two weeks of school, and so I know the girls stress out about that a little bit, but luckily, the professors work really well with us, and so I think that’s probably the most stressful thing, is that they’ve missed class for a lot at the last two weeks,” Kahrs said. “But the girls do a good job of communicating with the professors and then understanding what classmates can help them out, as far as finding notes and such.”
The upcoming games against Washburn and Central Missouri are going to be difficult but important for the Tigers’ battle in the MIAA standings. FHSU beat both Washburn and UCM by 30 points in December, but since then, those teams have improved and Kahrs anticipates a challenging weekend.
“The hard part with Washburn and Central Missouri is, I think, the first time we played them, we didn’t see them at full speed. Washburn was missing their best player when we played them, and then Central Missouri has figured out how to play together a little bit better, so we’re going to see two totally different teams than we saw the first time,” she said. “So understanding that even though we beat them really bad the first time, they’re completely different teams, and playing really good basketball right now.”
FHSU plays Washburn at 5:30 p.m. tonight and will face UCM at 1 p.m. on Saturday.