FHSU Athletics
#6/#10 Fort Hays State (24-2, 15-2 MIAA) vs.
Nebraska-Kearney (19-7, 12-5 MIAA)
Wednesday, February 26, 2025 • 5:30 p.m.
Hays, Kan. • Gross Memorial Coliseum
Radio: KJLS (103.3) CLICK HERE TO LISTEN
Video: MIAA Network: CLICK HERE TO WATCH ($)
The sixth-ranked Fort Hays State women's basketball team plays at home for the final time during the regular season on Wednesday when the Tigers host long-time rival Nebraska-Kearney. Tipoff is slated for 5:30 p.m. inside Gross Memorial Coliseum.
It is the first of two meetings this week between the Tigers (24-2, 15-2 MIAA) and Lopers (19-7, 12-5 MIAA), with the teams also wrapping up the regular season with another game in Kearney in just three days. Wednesday's game was originally scheduled to be played on January 7 but was postponed due to winter weather.
This is not the first time the Lopers and Tigers have played twice in one week. Just four years ago the teams played twice in three days during the COVID-altered 2020-21 season. The unranked Tigers handed No. 4 Nebraska-Kearney its first and second losses of the season, winning 61-49 in Hays on a Thursday (1/28/21) and coming away victorious 68-60 two days later in Kearney (1/30/21).
Both the Tigers and Lopers were listed as under consideration for selection into the 2025 NCAA Division II Central Region Championships in the first release of the Central Region rankings last Wednesday. Since that date the Tigers have won twice, including a double-digit win against then-No. 5 Pittsburg State. The Lopers, meanwhile, lost to both Missouri Southern and PSU last week.
The Tigers still trail Pittsburg State in the latest update of the MIAA KPI Standings, which will be used for seeding for the 2025 MIAA Basketball Championship presented by Southern Bank. FHSU now holds a rating of .183 (up from .152 a week ago), while the Gorillas' rating is .191. Missouri Western is third with a rating of .151, while UNK is fourth at .093. This rating system assigns point values to wins and losses based on opponent and location, etc.
Fort Hays State continues to rank among the nation's best in numerous categories, including assist/turnover ratio (second, 1.39), assists per game (fourth, 18.6), scoring margin (fifth, plus-19.0), field goal percentage (sixth, 46.1 percent), winning percentage (seventh, 92.3 percent) and field goal percentage defense (11th, 34.7 percent).
After opening the year with 12-straight wins and winning 11 in a row since January 18, the Tigers now have multiple 10-game winning streaks in a season for the third time in team history (1990-91, 2018-19). This is the 16th double-digit winning streak in school history.
Fort Hays State has surpassed the 20-win plateau for a 14th-consecutive season, the longest active streak in DII (Drury second with 11) and the fifth-longest streak in all NCAA women's basketball. The next-best stretch in the MIAA is just three seasons (MWSU, MSSU, PSU).Fort Hays State leads Division II in attendance this season, averaging 2,105 fans per home contest. That total would rank 84th in Division I and is more than 282 DI programs.
Brooke Loewe is now the school's single-season assists leader with 177 this season, breaking a 34-year old record (1990-91). She has dished out 10 or more assists five times this season, a feat only one other MIAA player has accomplished more than once.
Fort Hays State has had a Tiger student-athlete earn MIAA Athlete of the Week honors four times this season, more than any other school in the league (UCM, PSU three each). Both Katie DeGarmo and Olivia Hollenbeck have earned the recognition two times.
DeGarmo has been named MIAA Athlete of the week each of the last two weeks, averaging 18.3 points and 11.0 rebounds over the last four games. She earned the award on February 17 after posting a pair of double-doubles in road wins at Emporia State (13p, 14r) and Newman (16p, 10r), averaging 14.5 ppg and 12.0 rpg for the week. She then put up season-highs with 27 points and 15 rebounds against Missouri Southern before tallying 17 points and five rebounds against No. 5 Pittsburg State to earn the award on February 24, averaging 22.0 points and 10.0 rebounds for the week. She has now earned the conference's weekly award seven times in her career and has done so multiple times in each of the last three seasons.
Olivia Hollenbeck has also been named MIAA Athlete of the Week twice this season. The graduate student picked up the first honor of the season in November after averaging 24.0 points, 6.5 rebounds, 2.5 blocks and 2.5 steals per game in a pair of wins in St. Joseph, Mo. The graduate student opened the year with 29 points against Augustana, including 25 after halftime. She then averaged 24.5 points on 76 percent shooting (19-of-25) in a pair of home wins in February, including 22 points against NSU and 27 and four blocks against UAFS.
The Tigers have both played and beaten UNK more than any other school in program history. Fort Hays State is 62-42 all-time against Nebraska-Kearney, including a 36-15 record at home and wins in the last two meetings. The Tigers are 2-0 against the Lopers under head coach talia Kahrs, including a 1-0 record at home. The Tigers are 18-6 against UNK in regular season MIAA meetings and 5-3 in games that reach overtime, including wins in the last five overtime meetings.
The Lopers enter the week 19-7 overall and 12-5 in conference action, including a 7-4 record on the road. Nebraska-Kearney averages 72.5 points per night, sixth-best in the MIAA. Their scoring margin of plus-14.9 is third-best in the league. The Lopers average 26.8 points off the bench per game, best in the league and 25th-best in Division II. Jillian Aschoff leads a balanced offense with just 11.0 points per game, however five players average at least nine points per game with two more scoring more than six points per outing. Bailee Sobczak leads the conference with 3.2 offensive rebounds per game.