EDMOND, Okla. – Fort Hays State’s chances of making the MIAA Tournament took a big blow Thursday. The Tigers rallied late to force overtime but were outscored 11-4 in the extra period and lost 80-73 at Central Oklahoma. The loss drops the Tigers (13-14, 6-12 MIAA) into a tie with Pittsburg State for the final slot into next week’s MIAA Tournament. The Gorillas, thanks to a win in Hays last month, hold the tiebreaker over the Tigers.
Jared Vitztum converted on a conventional three-point play with 17 seconds left in regulation to tie the game and force overtime. The Bronchos (10-17, 7-11 MIAA) scored the first seven points in the overtime period to build their biggest lead of the game.
After a slow start in which they fell behind by five, the Tigers went on a 22-7 run to build a couple of 10-points first half leads, the last with 8:33 to play on an olley-oop dunk by Jake Hutchings on a feed from Aaron Nicholson.
UCO closed out the first half on a 17-7 run to tie the game at halftime and would build a six-point lead on three different occasions in the second half. After the Tigers battled back to tie the game at 62 and 66, Justin Nimmer hit a 3-pointer with 31 seconds left to push the Bronchos lead to 69-66 before Vitztum’s three-point tied the game with 17 seconds left.
Nimmer led UCO with 21 points.
Jake Hutchings led the Tigers with 16 points. Nyjee Wright added 13 and Jared Vitztum 10.
Fort Hays State closes out the regular Saturday in Wichita against Newman. The Tigers need to win and have Central Missouri defeat Pittsburg State to get into the conference tournament.