FHSU Athletics
KANSAS CITY, Mo. – Fort Hays State fell to No. 12/14 ranked Central Oklahoma in the MIAA Tournament Semifinals on Saturday (Mar. 4). The Tigers held an eight-point halftime lead only to see the Bronchos slip by in the second half and hold on by a score of 55-51. FHSU moved to 21-9 overall, while UCO moved to 26-4 and will play Northwest Missouri State in the championship game Sunday.
This was the first time this season FHSU lost a game that it led at halftime. The Tigers were 18-0 up until Saturday when holding the halftime advantage.
Fort Hays State started the game red hot, hitting nine of its first 13 shots from the field. The Tigers had a 10-point lead of 17-7 about six and a half minutes into the game, but UCO chipped away to get the lead down to just one with two minutes before halftime. The Tigers responded with a 7-0 run to end the half and lead 30-22 at halftime.
After the Tigers led by eight nearly six minutes into the second half, UCO used a 12-2 run from the 14:16 to 10:34 marks of the second half to grab a one-point lead. It was a tight battle the rest of the way, but UCO took the lead for good with 9:30 to go in the game on a Cam Givens layup. The Bronchos had a seven point lead with 5:33 to play, but the Tigers responded with a 6-0 run to get it back to one with about three and half minutes to go.
The Bronchos managed to hold on as both teams clamped down defensively over the final three minutes. The Tigers unfortunately went scoreless over the final 3:41 of the game and the Bronchos were able to make a pair of free throws with eight seconds remaining to put the game on ice. Kaleb Hammeke had a good look at a three from the left wing with about 10 seconds to go, but unfortunately was a bit strong on the attempt before UCO secured the rebound and hit the clinching free throws.
Hammeke led the Tigers with 11 points, followed by Gabe Pieschl with nine. Iyen Enaruna and Bjarni Jonsson each had eight. The Tigers were a bit better than the Bronchos in field goal percentage, 43.5 to 39.2. Both teams made 20 field goals, but UCO made one more 3-point shot and three more free throws in the game to account for the four-point final margin.
The Tigers were No. 10 in the latest NCAA Central Region rankings and have to hope for a massive jump in their region formula to get into the NCAA Tournament as an at-large selection in the Central Regional. The eighth spot will already be taken by the automatic qualifier from the Great American Conference as No. 1 seed and No. 3 region-ranked Southern Nazarene was upset in the opening round. A GAC team that was not in the final set of region rankings will get in automatically for a second-straight year, which could spell heartbreak for the Tigers once again. The NCAA selection show is on Sunday night (Mar. 5) at 10 p.m. on NCAA.com.