FHSU Athletics
EDMOND, Okla. – Fort Hays State ran into a red-hot shooting Central Oklahoma team on Saturday (Jan. 25). The Tigers fell to the Bronchos by a score of 75-65, moving to 13-5 overall and 6-3 in MIAA play. UCO improved to 11-8 overall and 5-5 in the MIAA, snapping FHSU's four-game win streak.
Central Oklahoma was nearly perfect shooting the ball for the first 11 minutes of the game, going 11-of-12 (91.7 percent) from the field and 7-of-7 at the free-throw line. That equated into a 31-18 lead as the Tigers, as hard as they tried, could not slow down the Bronchos. UCO went on to hit 14 of its first 16 field goal attempts of the game and held a 40-22 lead before the Tigers ended the first half on an 8-1 run to get the lead back down to 11, 41-30, at halftime.
The Bronchos finally cooled off by making just one of their final eight field goal attempts of the first half, but the damage was already done and ended up being too much for the Tigers to overcome. The Tigers scored the first four points of the second half to get the lead back down to seven, but UCO countered with an 8-0 run to get its lead back out to 15. An 18-point spread was the largest lead for UCO in the second half, reached at the 1:50 mark. FHSU ended the game on an 8-0 run to get the final margin back down to 10.
Kaleb Hammeke led the Tigers with 15 points, while R.J. Crawford and Aiden McDowell each had 10. Shaun Riley pulled down a team-high seven rebounds and Traejon Davis had a team-best four assists. The Tigers shot a respectable 47.1 percent from the field as a team. However, the Tigers committed 16 turnovers, their second most in a game this season, while the Bronchos committed just six. UCO outscored the Tigers 21-0 on points off turnovers.
Jacob Sebock had 16 of his game-high 21 points for the Bronchos in the first half, going 7-of-8 from the field before halftime. All five UCO starters hit at least three field goals in the game. JV Seat had 15 points and Israel Hart added 11. After shooting 62.5 percent from the field in the first half, UCO cooled to 52.9 for the game. However, the Bronchos were the first opponent to shoot over 50 percent in a game against the Tigers this season.
UP NEXT
Fort Hays State will now prep for a road test against Washburn on Thursday (Jan. 30). The Ichabods will likely be No. 1 in the nation still for the meeting after moving to 19-0 overall and 10-0 in the MIAA on Saturday. Washburn won the first meeting of the season with FHSU in Hays 71-57.