{"id":44365,"date":"2019-03-10T19:09:44","date_gmt":"2019-03-11T00:09:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/?p=44365"},"modified":"2019-03-11T00:01:36","modified_gmt":"2019-03-11T05:01:36","slug":"fhsu-womens-basketball-claims-first-miaa-conference-championship-defeats-ucm-63-56","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/?p=44365","title":{"rendered":"FHSU Women’s Basketball claims first MIAA Conference Championship; Defeats UCM 63-56"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

BY RUSSELL HEITMANN<\/p>\n\n\n\n

KANSAS CITY, Missouri — It\u2019s been a long time coming for Fort Hays State University and the women\u2019s basketball program. Having made three MIAA Tournament championship games since 2015, winning the title has been an elusive feat for the Tigers \u2013 until now. FHSU knocked off the University of Central Missouri on Sunday, 63-56 to claim the Tigers\u2019 first postseason conference championship since their 1993 victory as a member of the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

For head coach, Tony Hobson, winning the title was an accomplishment\nthat checked off a box on his personal \u201cto-do\u201d list; however, the opportunity\nto watch his team celebrate a conference championship was even more fulfilling.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cFor me personally, I like to win at anything I do but I am\njust happy for these kids to get experience cutting down the nets and\ncelebrating, and I just like to sit back and watch that,\u201d said Hobson. \u201cBecause\nthey\u2019ve worked their butts off this year and they\u2019ve been coached \u2013 I like to\nsay coached, they like to say other things. You know they are adults and they\ncarry themselves like that and they\u2019ve done a great job and I\u2019m proud of them.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Senior forward, Tatyana Legette, shared in Hobson\u2019s ideals\nof playing for someone other than herself. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt means a lot,\u201d [on winning the MIAA championship],\u201d said\nLegette. \u201cAnd I have said this before, but every win for us is for Carly [Heim].\nNot just for me but for everyone on the team. And so it means a lot to me that\nwe are doing so well, and I just want to take it further into the NCAA\nTournament, keep playing hard have a lot of energy, have a lot of effort and do\nwhat we do best.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Playing for Heim may have been the boost that Legette needed\nto perform at her highest level \u2013 not only during the season, but throughout\nthe tournament. The MIAA regular season player of the year was also named the\nTournament\u2019s Most Outstanding Player after scoring 14 points and grabbing 12\nrebounds against UCM. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Although Legette was named MOP, any number of Tigers could\nhave earned the honor. Junior forward Lanie Page and junior guard Taylor Rolfs\nwere both named to the All-Tournament team alongside Legette. Page finished the\ngame with ten points while Rolfs scored 17 to lead all scorers. Hobson noted\nthat after the game\u2019s outcome was no longer in doubt, the only question running\nthrough his mind was which of his players would win the MOP award. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWell, it\u2019s kind of a good feeling after we won the game,\nbecause we probably have the MVP of the Tournament, but I don\u2019t know who it\nmight be,\u201d said Hobson. \u201cIt could have been several people and Taylor was one\nof them, \u201cT\u201d was one of them and maybe Lanie could have been one of them. We\nhad so many people play really big.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Tigers once again won behind a balanced attack, with\nfour players finishing in double-figure scoring. Joining Legette, Rolfs and\nPage was junior forward, Belle Barbieri, who also had ten points. Legette said\nplaying on such a balanced team makes it harder on their opponents, and more\nfun for the Tigers. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI enjoy being a part of a team where anybody can do\nanything,\u201d said Legette. \u201cI think it kind of takes a lot of stress off all of\nus pretty much, because there are so many people that you can rely on and that\nis really, really nice both offensively and defensively as well.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fort Hays jumped out to an early 18-5 lead by converting on\ntheir first eight offensive possessions. And while the Tigers had similar early\nsuccess on Saturday behind hot three-point shooting, the Tigers made a more\nconcerted effort to enter the ball into the post and take advantage of matchups\ninside against UCM. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThat was game plan, because we thought that offensively it\nwould be a decided advantage if we got it in there,\u201d said Hobson. \u201cAnd their guards\nare excellent and they switch well so we weren\u2019t getting many open looks [on\nthe perimeter]. So our first three looks were going to be trying to go inside,\nand work from the inside out and tonight it got us off to a good start.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rolfs said their early success helped them throughout the\nremainder of the game by playing with the lead and not worrying about trying to\nmake up ground. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThat was huge because it was just kind of like a jumpstart\ninto the whole game,\u201d said Rolfs. \u201cJust keep the lead from now on, so that was\ngood that we had that lead at the beginning and down low we did a really good\njob of finishing at the start of the game.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Tigers will now await their NCAA Tournament seeding fate\nas the Tournament Selection show will air tonight at 9 p.m. CST. The most\nrecent Central Regional Rankings had FHSU as the number two seed behind\nSouthwestern Oklahoma State. SWOSU defeated Arkansas Tech 87-66 today to win\nthe Great American Conference title. FHSU is ranked ahead of SWOSU in both the\ncoaches and media poll. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

For Hobson and the Tigers, they will pay attention to the\nseeding releases tonight on their bus ride home to find out if they will host\nthe regional next weekend in Hays, or travel to SWOSU for the NCAA Tournament. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cRight now I think it is up in the air \u2013 I don\u2019t know if we\nare going to be on the road, or host, or whatever, but we will wait and see,\u201d\nsaid Hobson. \u201cWe will either be a one or two seed. I think our chances are good.\nIf you are 30-1 in this league and win the conference, and win the conference\ntournament, I just don\u2019t see how it can\u2019t happen. But I have seen a lot of\nstrange things happen.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The NCAA Central Regional will be played from March 15-18 on the number one seed\u2019s campus. Stay tuned to Tiger Media Network for more information on FHSU\u2019s seeding. <\/p>\n\n\n\n