FHSU Athletics
Fort Hays State (20-6, 14-6 MIAA)
vs. Missouri Southern (19-6, 15-4 MIAA)
Saturday, February 24, 2024 • 2 p.m.
Hays, Kan. • Gross Memorial Coliseum
Radio: KJLS (103.3) CLICK HERE TO LISTEN
Video: The MIAA Network CLICK HERE TO WATCH ($)
Game Sponsor: Nex-Tech
National Anthem: Brent and Ginger Williams
Women's Halftime: Gross Memorial Coliseum 50th anniversary season celebration
Men's Halftime: 50 years of FHSU Basketball inside Gross Memorial Coliseum, 1984 MBB championship recognition
The Fort Hays State women's basketball team will host Missouri Southern Saturday afternoon, looking to avenge a road loss to the Lions last month. First tip is slated for 2 p.m. inside Gross Memorial Coliseum.
With two games yet to play in the regular season, the Tigers (20-6, 14-6 MIAA) currently sit in fourth in the conference standings. FHSU is 1.5 games behind Missouri Southern (19-6, 15-4 MIAA) who rank second in the league. Pending results over the final two weekends of play, the Tigers can finish anywhere from a tie for first to a tie for sixth.
Fort Hays State picked up its 20th win of the season on Thursday, extending the longest active streak of 20-win seasons in Division II to 13. It is tied for the seventh-longest active streak of 20-win seasons across all NCAA Divisions. FHSU reached the 20-win plateau just eight times over the first 42 years of the program before the current streak began in 2011-12, including no more than two consecutive 20-win campaigns during that time (twice).
The next-best active streak of 20-win seasons in the MIAA is four (UNK), while the next-best streak in Division II is 11 (Drury). Only six DI programs have longer active stretches of 20-win seasons, including UConn (31), Baylor (24), Stanford (23), Florida Gulf Coast (20), Maryland (19) and Louisville (14).
Both the Tigers and Lions are listed as under consideration in the initial NCAA DII Regional Rankings, released Wednesday. Five other MIAA programs are listed, giving the conference seven of the 10 teams on the list.
Fort Hays State is celebrating the 50th anniversary season of basketball inside Gross Memorial Coliseum this weekend. The women are 566-140 at home over the last 50-plus seasons, good for a winning percentage better than 80 percent. The Tigers have won at least 10 home games in 35 of the last 50 seasons inside the Coliseum. FHSU has only two losing records in a season at home during the GMC era.
The Tigers will celebrate the building of the Coliseum during halftime of the women's game before welcoming back nearly 150 former players for a celebration of 50 years of basketball inside Gross Memorial Coliseum during men's halftime.
Olivia Hollenbeck has made it a habit of scoring early and often of late, with the post player averaging 16.5 points per game over the last three weeks. The Lincoln, Neb. native scored the first 10 points in Thursday's win over Pittsburg State after scoring FHSU's first 12 points before putting up a career-high 30 against Newman two weeks ago.
Now with 1,310 career points, Hollenbeck needs 11 points to tie Chris Biser for 12th all-time in scoring at Fort Hays State.
Katie Wagner is closing in on a pair of milestones, sitting four points away from 1,600 points and one rebound shy of 900. She would be the fifth Tiger to score 1,600 points, the fourth Tiger to grab 900 rebounds, and just the third player in school history to accomplish both feats.
Sydney Golladay distributed four assists in Thursday's win, moving her within one of climbing to eighth all-time at Fort Hays State (Shauna Porter, 331 career assists).
Fort Hays State holds a comfortable lead in the all-time series, 38-21. Fort Hays State has won 25 out of the 30 matchups in Hays, including 10 of the last 11 dating back to 2012. Missouri Southern holds a two-game winning streak over the Tigers. The Lions have won three of the last five meetings after FHSU won seven in a row between 2017 and 2021.
Missouri Southern bounced back with a win at Nebraska-Kearney on Thursday (86-75) after dropping its two previous games. The Lions are 9-3 in true road games this season. MSSU ranks fifth in the conference in both scoring offense (73.3 ppg) and scoring defense (61.5 ppg allowed). They have the second-best field-goal percentage defense, allowing teams to shoot just .365. The Lions lead the conference in both 3-point percentage (.362) and free-throw percentage (.786). Four Lions are scoring in double figures, including Kryslyn Jones (12.2 ppg), Ryan Franklin (11.8 ppg), Kaitlin Hunnicutt (11.2 ppg) and Brandi Hudson (10.8 ppg).