FHSU Athletics
HAYS, Kan. – Fort Hays State moved to 3-2 overall on the season with a 95-62 win over Manhattan Christian on Saturday afternoon (Nov. 30) at Gross Memorial Coliseum. The Tigers shot 55.4 percent overall and held the Thunder to 33.9 percent from the field. FHSU had four players reach double figures in scoring, led by Kaleb Hammeke with 18.
Hammeke moved to third on the all-time scoring list at FHSU, passing Raymond Lee. He now has 1,630 points in his career, just two points shy of moving to second on the list held by Mark Wilson (1,631). Hammeke also pulled down seven rebounds in the contest.
Joining Hammeke in double figures were Kyle Grill with 16, Dan Mukuna with 15, and R.J. Crawford with 13. It was a new best for Mukuna at FHSU and a season high for Crawford. Mukuna led the Tigers in rebounds with eight, also a new high for him.
Fort Hays State opened the game on a 9-1 run and eventually moved its lead into double digits at the 14:49 mark of the opening half. The lead reached 11 seven times, but the Thunder cut the lead back down to five three times inside of five minutes. The FHSU lead eventually reached 13 before the halftime margin was 11 with a score of 46-35.
The Tigers finally started to pull away early in the second half, stretching the lead out to 20 about seven minutes into the second half. A 12-2 run a little bit later took the lead from 18 to 28. The margin finally climbed past 30 with a little over a minute to play and a Mukuna fast-break dunk capped the scoring in the game and put the final margin at 33.
All 10 Tigers that played in the game scored. Lucas Hammeke had a career-high nine points and dished out a team-high six assists. The Tigers scored 24 points at the free-throw line on 29 attempts (82.8 percent).
Davis Rokey led Manhattan Christian with 19 points, followed by Micah Lovett with 11 and Xavier Lucas with 10. Lucas nearly had a double-double, finishing with a team-high nine rebounds.
Fort Hays State opens conference play next week, playing host to Central Missouri on Thursday night (Dec. 5) at 7:30 p.m.