By GERARD WELLBROCK
Hays Post
Hays, Kan. - The Fort Hays State men's basketball team used an 11-0 second half run to take the lead for good and beat No. 17 Northwest Missouri State 57-49 Thursday at Gross Memorial Coliseum.
It's the Tigers first win over the Bearcats since February 13, 2013 ending a 16-game losing streak. That also happens to be the last season Northwest did not win the MIAA title, either sharing or winning it outright the 10 seasons since.
It's also the fewest points the Bearcats have scored against the Tigers since FHSU joined the MIAA.
The Tigers (6-2, 2-1 MIAA) missed their their first five shots of the game and fell behind 6-0 but tied the game on 3-pointers from Bjarni Jonsson and Kaleb Hammeke. The Bearcats (5-3, 2-1 MIAA) would build the lead back up to six before Jonsson hit his second three of the half which capped a 9-2 Tiger run and gave them the 20-19 halftime lead.
Northwest opened the second half on a 9-2 run to go back up by six but FHSU scored the next 11 points and never trailed again. R.J. Crawford started the run with a 3-pointer then Kaleb Hammeke capped it with a deep three later in the shot clock to put the Tigers up five.
The Tigers built the lead to eight with 4:53 to play and never let the Bearcats closer than four the rest of the way.
The Tigers shot 39-percent for the game (18-46) but shot 48-percent in the second half and hit 7-of-16 threes for the game while holding Northwest to 36-percent shooting and 2-of-16 from beyond the arc. The Bearcats scored 19 of their 49 points from the free throw line, 17 of them coming in the second half.
R.J. Crawford went 3-of-5 from beyond the arc and led the Tigers with a season-high 16 points. Kaleb Hammeke and Elijah Nnanabu both scored 13. Shaun Riley scored seven but pulled down a team-best eight rebounds.
Northwest was led in scoring by Daniel Abreu's 10 points. Bennet Stirtz and Wes Dreamer, who came into the game averaging nearly 37 points combined were held to 15 and went a combined 0-for-11 from three.
Fort Hays State prepares for another stiff test on Saturday when it hosts No. 22 ranked Missouri Western. The Griffons suffered their first loss of the season Thursday night at Nebraska-Kearney on a half-court heave at the buzzer. The Griffons enter at 7-1 overall and 2-1 in the MIAA.