FHSU Athletics
Fort Hays State (19-8, 14-7 MIAA) at
Nebraska-Kearney (5-22, 3-18 MIAA)
Saturday, February 25 - 4 p.m.
Kearney, Neb. - Health and Sports Center
Radio - KJLS (103.3)
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The Fort Hays State men's basketball team is in control of its own destiny for the MIAA Tournament on Saturday when it faces Nebraska-Kearney in Kearney. Tipoff is set for 4 p.m. at the Health and Sports Center. The Tigers (19-8, 14-7 MIAA) go into their final regular season game tied for third-place in the MIAA standings and can claim the No. 3 seed in the MIAA Tournament with a win.
With the results of games around the MIAA on Thursday night, the Tigers are now in a tie for third place after an Emporia State loss to Pittsburg State. A loss by Lincoln at Northeastern State also put the Tigers one full game up on Lincoln in the MIAA standings. FHSU has tiebreaker criteria on both Emporia State and Lincoln for a higher seed in the MIAA Tournament. Northwest Missouri State claimed its 10th-straight MIAA regular season title on Thursday night with a win over second-place Central Oklahoma.
Fort Hays State enters Saturday on a four-game win streak. The Tigers went on the road last week to sweep games against Pittsburg State and Missouri Southern. The week prior, FHSU knocked off Lincoln and Central Missouri in Hays to start the streak.
Nebraska-Kearney has a streak of the same length in the other direction, dropping its last four contests. The Lopers will enter at 5-22 overall and 3-18 in the MIAA.
Kaleb Hammeke finished one point off his career high with 35 points in the win at Missouri Southern this past Saturday. That helped net him MIAA Men's Basketball Athlete of the Week honors after averaging 27 points in Fort Hays State's road wins at PSU and MSSU. He also became the fourth player in program history to have both 1,000 points and 300 assists in a career, joining Raymond Lee, Mark Harris, and Craig Nicholson. Hammeke averages a team-best 16.8 points and 3.6 assists per game.
Elijah Nnanabu reached his career high for the fourth time this season, scoring 19 points at Missouri Southern. He was 8-of-8 at the free-throw line in that game and has made his last 10 at the charity stripe overall. He upped his scoring average to 10.3 points per game for the season.
Fort Hays State owns the third-best scoring defense in NCAA Division II at 57.9 points per game. The top three scoring defenses Division II all reside in the Central Region, all by regionally ranked teams. Southern Nazarene leads Division II at 55.9 points per game allowed, while Northwest Missouri State is only 0.1 behind at 56.0. The Tigers also rank in the top 10 for field goal percentage defense, currently ninth at an average of 39.8 percent.
The Tigers escaped the Lopers with a two-point win in Hays earlier this season, 57-55. Kaleb Hammeke hit a jumper in the lane with six seconds remaining to break a tie and UNK's potential game-winner from 3-point range fell off the mark. The Tigers have won the last four meetings between the teams.