WARRENSBURG, Mo. – Fort Hays State used balanced scoring and some timely three-point shooting in the second half to beat Central Missouri 65-50 Thursday at the Multipurpose Building. The Tigers (12-11, 5-9 MIAA) won their fifth straight and move into ninth-place in the conference standings. The top 10 teams advance to next month’s MIAA Tournament in Kansas City.
It's the Tigers first road win in conference play and their first win on the road since November 17th when they knocked of UC-Colorado Springs.
The Tigers used a 10-0 run to turn a seven-point first half deficit into a three-point lead at 22-19. A 14-4 run helped them extend their two-point halftime lead to 12.
After the Mules closed the gap to five, Perry Carroll hit back-to-back threes to push the lead back to double-figures with 8:53 to play. UCM (9-14, 4-10 MIAA) would never get closer than eight the rest of the way.
The Tigers shot 56-percent in the second half and 46-percent for the game. They hit seven of their 10 three-pointers after halftime and finished 10-fo-22 from beyond the arc.
The Tigers were led in scoring by Jared Vitztum, Calvin Harrington, Perry Carroll and Jake Hutchings who all scored 11 points. Devin Davis added eight and pulled down a career-high 12 rebounds.