Story by MAYAN PAZ Phot by PARKER NISBETH
Tiger Media Network
After a successful regular season and runner-up finish in both the MIAA regular season and postseason tournament, the Fort Hays State University women’s basketball team earned the No. 3 seed in this weekend’s NCAA DII Central Regional Tournament. The Central Regional is one of the best in DII, with seven teams ranked or receiving votes – more than any other region in the country.
The Central Regional tournament will take place at Pittsburg State University as the Gorillas defeated FHSU in the MIAA Tournament Championship game on their way to earning the No. 1 seed. However, the bracket draw puts the Tigers on the opposite side of PSU, who along with No. 4 seed Missouri Western, are the only two teams to defeat the Tigers this season.
Although FHSU has managed to beat those teams at different points of the season, according to FHSU Head Coach Talia Karhs, the team is pleased to only have the chance to meet them in the regional final.
“I feel really good about the way the bracket got played out, and [its] interesting that it’s six of eight from last year, too – six of those teams that we saw last year in the region are back,” she said. “So obviously, there’s a lot of experience on each of the teams, and they’ve been there, and a lot of those kids have played there. It should be a good tournament, as far as just not a ton of nerves compared to normal, probably, and just being ready to fight and battle.”
FHSU finished the season 27-4 overall and 16-3 in the MIAA, pushing them over 20 wins for the 14th consecutive year, which is more than any other DII team. While the Tigers dropped the MIAA title game to Pitt State 81-73, FHSU defeated the Gorillas 76-60 at home on Feb. 22.
Kahrs said she has confidece in her players to play in the possibly hostile environment in Pittsburg.
“It will be interesting to see if the Gorillas are cheering for us or not in the first two games. Obviously, we won’t have the chance to see them until Monday if we make it that far. And so I think for the most part, it’s still neutral because the first two games will still be neutral,” she said. “So I’m not really thinking about that. And this group actually, on our team that we have right now, we have played at Pitt really, really well, so we’ve had good games there, and we’ve played pretty well there. So that’s an encouraging thing, that we have good memories there from the past.”
Sophomore forward Talexa Weeter scored a career-high 35 points in the MIAA tournament quarter-finals, the most by a Tiger on that stage, and said the team was upset about losing the tournament finals but is ready to take on the next challenge.
“We were definitely upset after the loss because we definitely didn’t play as good as we were capable of, but we are getting another chance to come back and play even better,” Weeter said.
Kahrs said the team is really making an effort to bounce back as quickly as possible.
“It’s a little bit of a roller coaster of emotions because even on the way home, you’re anticipating getting into the national tournament, that’s your goal going into the year, is to make it to the national tournament,” she said. “So obviously, [we] experienced a hard loss, but then knowing we still have basketball to play this week, [we’re] just trying to balance that back.”
Kahrs said the team took a break on Monday and got some rest, then on Tuesday started back in on what adjustments they needed to make and prepare for the week.
Southern Nazarene went 23-7 this year, including a 19-3 mark in the Great American Conference and narrowly lost in the GAC tournament semi-finals. The Tigers and Crimson Storm will tip off today at noon. The game can be viewed on the MIAA Network.