{"id":69388,"date":"2022-11-20T09:30:14","date_gmt":"2022-11-20T15:30:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/?p=69388"},"modified":"2022-11-20T09:30:15","modified_gmt":"2022-11-20T15:30:15","slug":"womens-basketball-goes-1-1-at-home","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/?p=69388","title":{"rendered":"Women’s basketball goes 1-1 at home"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

STORY BY CAYDEN SANDERS
PHOTOS BY MADISON SHAPLAND<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It has been a busy couple of weeks for the FHSU women’s basketball team, playing six games over three weekends to start the year, including opening the season at the D2CCA Tip-off classic in Kansas City and traveling to Sioux Falls for a pair of games last season. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This weekend, FHSU finally returned to Gross Memorial Coliseum where they split their first two home games against Minnesota State-Mankato on Friday and Colorado Mesa on Saturday. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

MSU was a familiar face for FHSU, as the Tigers beat the Mavericks in the first round of the NCAA tournament last spring. This time, MSU would get their revenge against the Tigers, winning a down-to-the-wire finish 65-63. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis game had the post-game feel, especially with it being a match-up here last year,\u201d FHSU Head Coach Tony Hobson said. \u201cI felt that we had our chances in this game, it just didn’t go our way at the very end.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

FHSU trailed by two with 23 seconds left in the fourth quarter after a go-ahead score by MSU. On their ensuing possession, the Tigers went to Megan Earney for a potential game-winning three-pointer; however, her shot was off the mark. FHSU fouled MSU guard Joey Batt, who missed both of her free throws giving FHSU one last chance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Tigers put the ball in the hands of forward Jessie Sallach, who drilled a long fallaway jump shot to tie the game with 3.4 seconds remaining. Sallach\u2019s heroics were short-lived, though as MSU\u2019s Destinee Bursch made a buzzer-beating jumper as time expired, securing the win for the Mavericks. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI hate losing the first game, the past three weekends we have lost the first game and then we have to come back and play,\u201d  Hobson said. \u201cI hope that it is not a trend but we need to change something if it is.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

With the loss, FHSU dropped its first home opener in 18 seasons and also snapped its 61-game home winning streak against non-conference foes. The Tigers were led by Katie Wagner, who scored a game-high 17 points while Sallach added ten points of her own. No other Tiger scored in double figures. MSU was led by Batt\u2019s 15 points and Emily Herzberg\u2019s 11 points. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

FHSU is still working on finding its scoring identity, as the Tigers have now shot worse than 38 percent in all of their losses this year and have had multiple leading scorers each night.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A photo gallery from FHSU’s first game can be found here. <\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

On Saturday the Tigers competed against the Mavericks of Colorado Mesa, a former Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference rival. The Tigers lead the series 14-12 coming into the contest and hadn\u2019t played CMU since 2006. A big second half secured an FHSU win, 75-50.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Colorado Mesa did come out hot against the Tigers, as the Mavericks held the lead until the end of the first quarter when the Tigers tied the score up at 19 each. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI think we have finally found our stride as a team, we played really well once we started to play,\u201d sophomore forward Olivia Hollenbeck said. \u201cI think that in the MSU game we started to figure it out, but having a game like this has put some confidence into our team.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the second quarter, the Tigers started to find their stride, pushing their lead to 36-30 at halftime. However, it was an explosive third quarter that broke the game open for FHSU, outscoring CMU 23-8, tying a program record for the fewest points allowed in a quarter. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cDefensively, we started to get it going and figured out how we wanted to attack them,\u201d Hollenbeck said. \u201cBut it was a great team effort the second half everyone did their job, and everyone played and scored, and that is what we have been looking for.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

With the Fort Hays State non-conference schedule mostly done (Tabor and Bethany remaining) the Tigers have played four new teams this season during the Hobson era in West Texas, Southern Nazarene, Augustana, and Colorado Mesa. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The women’s basketball team will finish \u201cHoopsgiving\u201d at Gross Memorial a5 5:00 p.m. on Saturday against Tabor College. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI am turning the players loose for a couple of days this week for them to go home, and then we will get back at it later in the week to get back into the schedule,\u201d Hobson said.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
The 3rd ranked Fort Hays Women\u2019s basketball team hypes up before the tip-off against Colorado Mesa. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
Olivia Hollenbeck has her sights set on giving the tigers the first possession of the game as she fights for the ball at tip-off. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
Sydney Golladay carries the ball over half-court to begin the Tigers’ offense. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
Katie Wagner pulls up for a 10-footer over the hands of Mesa players. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
Kate Dilsaver and the Tigers play a tight defensive game, pressuring the opposition’s offense. \u201cWe showed a lot of pressure tonight and put together a full game,\u201d said D. \u201cPlaying hard as a team and staying engaged individually is something we\u2019ve been working on. Being able to put these into action tonight felt good and was key to our win tonight,\u201d she said.\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
Brooke Loewe dribbles to the top of the key to reset the offensive play.\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
Emma Ruddle sinks a three.\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
Jessie Sallach goes to work in the paint and secures the tigers another 2 points.\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
Golladay makes a pass into the paint where a post is open.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
Wagner sinks two free throws.\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
Ellie Stearns puts the ball through the hoop. \u201cWe have a lot of new players this year,\u201d said Stearns. \u201cGetting our chemistry down is something we keep improving on every game. We always just want to come out and play our best.\u201d\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
Hollenback drives through Mesa territory and draws a foul to make a three-point play. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
As the timer counts down, Magen Earney creates a play to beat the shot clock.\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
Ruddle on full-court defense. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
Dilsaver drives to the hoop. \u201cThe season has gone by so fast already. I\u2019m really excited to continue to play together and have fun. I have had a blast this year and can\u2019t wait to see what the rest of this season brings,\u201d said Dilsaver.\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

STORY BY CAYDEN SANDERSPHOTOS BY MADISON SHAPLAND It has been a busy couple of weeks for the FHSU women’s basketball team, playing six games over… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":142,"featured_media":69375,"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":[7349,3395],"tags":[14199,3448,14541],"class_list":["post-69388","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports","category-womens-basketball-sports","tag-cayden-sanders","tag-fhsu-womens-basketball","tag-madison-shapland"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/tigermedianet.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/11.19.22-WBB-CMesa-Madison-Shapland_03-scaled.jpg?fit=2560%2C1707&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\/69388","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=69388"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69388\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":69393,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69388\/revisions\/69393"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/69375"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=69388"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=69388"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=69388"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}