FHSU Athletics
#6/#10 Fort Hays State (25-2, 16-2 MIAA) at
Nebraska-Kearney (19-8, 12-6 MIAA)
Saturday, March 1, 2025 • 2 p.m.
Kearney, Neb. • Health & Sports Center
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Video: MIAA Network: CLICK HERE TO WATCH ($)
The sixth-ranked Fort Hays State women's basketball team plays Nebraska-Kearney for a second time in four days Saturday when the long-time rivals wrap up the regular season in Kearney, Neb. First tip is slated for 2 p.m. inside the Health & Sports Center.
Winners of 12 in a row, Fort Hays State is now 25-2 overall and 17-2 in conference play. The Tigers are one game behind Pittsburg State in the conference regular season standings, however with Wednesday's dominant win over Nebraska-Kearney FHSU has moved past the Gorillas in the KPI rankings which will be used for tournament seeding. This rating system assigns point values to wins and losses based on opponent and location, etc.
This is the second 12-game winning streak of the season for the Tigers. It is tied for the seventh-longest winning streak in team history while this is just the third time in the team's 56-year history that FHSU has had multiple double-digit winning streaks in a single season.
Fort Hays State now has 25 wins in back-to-back seasons, reaching that plateau for the eighth time in school history. One more win would move 2024-25 into a tie for fifth for the winningest season in school history (26 wins in 2017-18).
The Tigers just completed a perfect month of February, winning all eight of their games. It is the winningest month for the team since FHSU went 9-0 in February 2021.
Fort Hays State knocked down a blistering 60.7 percent from the floor in Wednesday's 92-56 win over the Lopers, shooting better than 60 percent for the first time in four years. That effort helped the Tigers improve their season shooting percentage to 46.6 percent, fifth-best in the country.
The Tigers also rank second nationally in assist/turnover ratio (1.38), fourth in assists per game (18.7) fifth in scoring margin (plus-19.6), sixth in winning percentage (92.6 percent) and 10th in field goal percentage defense (34.6 percent).
Brooke Loewe distributed nine assists Wednesday, bringing her season total to 186. That total is the most in a single season in team history and ranks second in Division II.
Talexa Weeter matched her career high with 25 points in just 17 minutes of action against the Lopers, scoring 20-plus points for the fifth time this year. Despite coming off the bench, the sophomore ranks 15th in the conference with 13.1 points per game.
Kate DeGarmo totaled 20 points in Wednesday's win, scoring in double figures for the ninth time in 11 tries against Nebraska-Kearney. The Maize, Kan. native averages 12.5 points and 6.3 rebounds when playing the Lopers.
Olivia Hollenbeck recorded a career-high six steals against UNK, bringing her season total to 60 steals. That ranks second in the conference, while she also ranks second in the league in field goal percentage (61.8 percent), third in blocks (47) and fifth in points per game (16.5).
Bailey Wilborn drilled a trio of 3-pointers in Wednesday's win, doing so for the fourth time this season. She is tied with Ellie Stearns for the most games with at least three long-range makes this year. Stearns now has at least one 3-pointer in six of the last seven games.
Megan Earney also hit three shots from behind the arc against the Lopers, helping FHSU knock down a season-best 10 3-pointers.
Both the Tigers and Lopers were ranked in the top 10 in the latest NCAA Division II Central Region rankings that were released on Wednesday. Fort Hays State was listed third in the region, while UNK was 10th.
This is not the first time the Lopers and Tigers have played twice in one week. Just four years ago the teams played twice in three days during the COVID-altered 2020-21 season. The unranked Tigers handed No. 4 Nebraska-Kearney its first and second losses of the season, winning 61-49 in Hays on a Thursday (1/28/21) and coming away victorious 68-60 two days later in Kearney (1/30/21).
The Tigers have both played and beaten UNK more than any other school in program history. Fort Hays State is 63-42 all-time against Nebraska-Kearney, while the series is tied 25-25 in games played in Kearney. FHSU has won each of the last three meetings. The Tigers are 3-0 against the Lopers under head coach Talia Kahrs, including a 1-0 record on the road. The Tigers are 19-6 against UNK in regular season MIAA meetings and 5-3 in games that reach overtime, including wins in the last five overtime meetings.
The Lopers are now 19-8 overall and 12-6 in conference action, including a 10-2 record at home. Nebraska-Kearney averages 71.9 points per night, sixth-best in the MIAA. Their scoring margin of plus-13.0 is third-best in the league. The Lopers average 26.6 points off the bench per game, best in the league and 25th-best in Division II. Jillian Aschoff leads a balanced offense with 11.3 points per game, however six Lopers average at least 7.6 points per game. Bailee Sobczak leads the conference with 3.3 offensive rebounds per game.
Looking ahead, the Tigers will enter the postseason next week when they head to historic Municipal Auditorium in downtown Kansas City, Mo. for the 2025 MIAA Basketball Championship presented by Southern Bank. Should the Tigers earn the No. 1 or 2 seed in the tournament they would play in the quarterfinals on Thursday. However if they are seeded third through sixth they would open the tournament in the quarterfinals on Friday.