#18/RV Fort Hays State (22-4, 17-4 MIAA) at
#13/8 Northwest Missouri State (24-5, 17-4 MIAA)
Saturday, February 26 – 3:30 pm
Maryville, Mo. – Bearcat Arena
Radio: KJLS (103.3-FM)
LISTEN LIVE
Fort Hays State and Northwest Missouri State will square off on Saturday in Maryville, Mo. for at least a share of the MIAA Regular Season Championship. The No. 18 ranked Tigers enter at 22-4 overall, 17-4 in the MIAA, while the No. 13 ranked Bearcats are 24-5 overall, also 17-4 in the MIAA. The two teams are tied with Central Oklahoma for the MIAA lead going into the final regular season games around the conference on Saturday.
Whichever team wins this contest will have at least a share of the conference title. If Central Oklahoma wins on Saturday, the winner of this contest will share the regular season title with Central Oklahoma. If Central Oklahoma loses, the winner of this game will win the title outright. Central Oklahoma is hosting Missouri Southern on Saturday.
The Tigers have a chance to end the longest consecutive regular season title streak in the history of the MIAA. Northwest Missouri State's men have won eight consecutive regular season titles going back to the 2013-14 season and have won the last seven outright. Central Missouri shared the title with Northwest Missouri State the first year of the eight-consecutive year run. Fort Hays State and Central Missouri shared the title in 2012-13, the year before the NWMSU streak began, which was the last conference title of any sort for the FHSU men's basketball program.
Fort Hays State has claimed three conference championships during Mark Johnson's tenure as head coach. The Tigers have two regular season titles under Johnson, occurring in 2005-06 in the last year as members of the RMAC, and in 2012-13 in the MIAA. The lone MIAA Tournament championship under Johnson occurred in 2010-11.
Northwest Missouri State won the first meeting of the season with FHSU in Hays when they held a No. 2 ranking in both the NABC and D2SIDA Top 25 Polls. The Bearcats came out on top 74-60. That extended Northwest Missouri State's win streak in the series with FHSU to 12 games, which dates back to the 2012-13 season. FHSU won both regular season meetings that season before NWMSU won a meeting in the MIAA Tournament, which started the current streak. Northwest Missouri State has won the last five meetings between the teams in Maryville. FHSU's last win in Maryville occurred on February 13, 2013 by a score of 64-60.
Fort Hays State enters Saturday on a six-game win streak. The Tigers defeated Missouri Western 56-42 on Wednesday night in Hays. In that game, Jared Vitztum became the only player in the history of the FHSU men's basketball program to reach both 1,500 points and 900 rebounds in a career. He now has 1,527 points and 909 rebounds in his career and leads the Tigers this season at 15.7 points and 10.1 rebounds per game. Kaleb Hammeke (14.5) and Nyjee Wright (11.2) also average double figures in scoring for FHSU and Hammeke is the team's assist leader at 3.7 per game.
Trevor Hudgins and Wes Dreamer of Northwest Missouri State both had 19 points to lead the Bearcats in the first meeting with FHSU this season. Daniel Abreu added 16 points. Hudgins averages 24.2 points per game for the season to lead the Bearcats.