{"id":62512,"date":"2021-12-12T12:20:56","date_gmt":"2021-12-12T18:20:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/?p=62512"},"modified":"2021-12-12T12:20:58","modified_gmt":"2021-12-12T18:20:58","slug":"tiger-men-handle-nebraska-kearney-64-46-improve-to-8-0","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/?p=62512","title":{"rendered":"Tiger men handle Nebraska-Kearney 64-46; improve to 8-0"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>BY RAEGAN NEUFELD<br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Tigers extended their undefeated record to 8-0 on Saturday, beating Nebraska-Kearney 64-46. The eight-game win streak is the best start for the men\u2019s basketball team in a decade.&nbsp;<br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Fort Hays began the game on an 8-0 before the Lopers scored their first points four minutes into the game. After that, the Tiger defense held Nebraska-Kearney to a 23.8 field goal percentage and 14.3% from three-point range, resulting in just 12 points the whole first half. While the Lopers improved offensively in the second half, particularly behind the arc where they shot 46.7%, it was not enough to stop the Tigers.&nbsp;<br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThe first half we were tremendous defensively,\u201d Head Coach Mark Johnson said. \u201cIt was a great team effort and I think we showed a lot of toughness.\u201d<br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThey\u2019ve had a lot of close losses,\u201d senior Jared Vitztum added. \u201cIt was nice to jump on them in the first half. We just kept playing hard and that was the key to the game.\u201d<br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It was a typical day for Vitztum, as he scored 20 points and added 12 rebounds. Kaleb Hammeke led all scorers with 21 points, and Nyjee Wright chipped in with eight.<br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThose guys got the points and the stats, but Gabe [Pieschl] and Bjarni [Jonsson] and Geoff [Hamperian], and a lot of these guys do a lot of the little things to help us win that maybe don\u2019t show up in the stats,\u201d Johnson said.<br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>At this time last year, the Tigers were just 3-5. Johnson cited healed injuries and experience to be the difference makers.<br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cLast year we had three guys out with a broken foot, and the guys that were playing were young,\u201d he said. \u201cThe adversity and the negative things we went through last year because of injuries and youth, have now really paid dividends for us.\u201d<br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019re just going to keep playing defense like we have. That\u2019s our main focus,\u201d Vitztum said. \u201cAnd we\u2019re going to keep working hard on offense as well, it\u2019s getting a little better each game.\u201d<br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Fort Hays will be back in action against the University of Central Oklahoma (7-2) at 7:30 p.m. on December 17 at Gross Memorial Coliseum.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-gallery columns-2 is-cropped wp-block-gallery-1 is-layout-flex wp-block-gallery-is-layout-flex\"><li class=\"blocks-gallery-item\"><figure><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"790\" height=\"527\" data-attachment-id=\"62516\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/?attachment_id=62516\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/tigermedianet.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/0N7A9352-1.jpg?fit=6720%2C4480&amp;ssl=1\" data-orig-size=\"6720,4480\" data-comments-opened=\"1\" data-image-meta=\"{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;orientation&quot;:&quot;0&quot;}\" data-image-title=\"0N7A9352 (1)\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"\" data-medium-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/tigermedianet.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/0N7A9352-1.jpg?fit=370%2C247&amp;ssl=1\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/tigermedianet.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/0N7A9352-1.jpg?fit=790%2C527&amp;ssl=1\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/tigermedianet.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/0N7A9352-1.jpg?resize=790%2C527\" alt=\"\" data-id=\"62516\" data-link=\"http:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/?attachment_id=62516\" class=\"wp-image-62516\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/tigermedianet.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/0N7A9352-1.jpg?resize=1024%2C683&amp;ssl=1 1024w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/tigermedianet.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/0N7A9352-1.jpg?resize=150%2C100&amp;ssl=1 150w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/tigermedianet.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/0N7A9352-1.jpg?resize=370%2C247&amp;ssl=1 370w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/tigermedianet.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/0N7A9352-1.jpg?resize=768%2C512&amp;ssl=1 768w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/tigermedianet.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/0N7A9352-1.jpg?w=1580 1580w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/tigermedianet.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/0N7A9352-1.jpg?w=2370 2370w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 790px) 100vw, 790px\" \/><\/figure><\/li><li class=\"blocks-gallery-item\"><figure><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"790\" height=\"844\" data-attachment-id=\"62514\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/?attachment_id=62514\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/tigermedianet.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/0N7A9387-1.jpg?fit=4195%2C4480&amp;ssl=1\" data-orig-size=\"4195,4480\" data-comments-opened=\"1\" data-image-meta=\"{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;1639238695&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;orientation&quot;:&quot;0&quot;}\" data-image-title=\"0N7A9387 (1)\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"\" data-medium-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/tigermedianet.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/0N7A9387-1.jpg?fit=243%2C260&amp;ssl=1\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/tigermedianet.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/0N7A9387-1.jpg?fit=790%2C844&amp;ssl=1\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/tigermedianet.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/0N7A9387-1.jpg?resize=790%2C844\" alt=\"\" data-id=\"62514\" data-link=\"http:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/?attachment_id=62514\" class=\"wp-image-62514\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/tigermedianet.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/0N7A9387-1.jpg?resize=959%2C1024&amp;ssl=1 959w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/tigermedianet.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/0N7A9387-1.jpg?resize=140%2C150&amp;ssl=1 140w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/tigermedianet.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/0N7A9387-1.jpg?resize=243%2C260&amp;ssl=1 243w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/tigermedianet.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/0N7A9387-1.jpg?resize=768%2C820&amp;ssl=1 768w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/tigermedianet.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/0N7A9387-1.jpg?w=1580 1580w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/tigermedianet.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/0N7A9387-1.jpg?w=2370 2370w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 790px) 100vw, 790px\" \/><\/figure><\/li><\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>BY RAEGAN NEUFELD The Tigers extended their undefeated record to 8-0 on Saturday, beating Nebraska-Kearney 64-46. The eight-game win streak is the best start for&hellip; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":142,"featured_media":62515,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3394,7349],"tags":[9873,775,14226,12433,290],"class_list":["post-62512","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mens-basketball-sports","category-sports","tag-jared-vitztum","tag-mark-johnson","tag-raegan-neufeld","tag-tiger-hoops","tag-tmn"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/tigermedianet.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/0N7A9378-1-e1639333170482.jpg?fit=3196%2C1888&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62512","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/142"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=62512"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62512\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":62517,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62512\/revisions\/62517"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/62515"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=62512"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=62512"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=62512"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}