FHSU Athletics
Fort Hays State (12-3, 7-2 MIAA)
at Pittsburg State (8-5, 4-3 MIAA)
Saturday, January 13 • 3:30 p.m.
Pittsburg, Kan. • John Lance Arena
Radio: KJLS (103.3) CLICK HERE TO LISTEN
Video: The MIAA Network CLICK HERE TO WATCH ($)
The Fort Hays State men's basketball team returns to action on Saturday afternoon at Pittsburg State. Tipoff is set for 3:30 p.m. at John Lance Arena. The Tigers enter at 12-3 overall, 7-2 in the MIAA, while the Gorillas are 8-5 overall, 4-3 in the MIAA.
Both teams are coming off wins on Thursday night. FHSU won 85-67 at Missouri Southern and Pittsburg State defeated Nebraska-Kearney 90-76 in Pittsburg. Fort Hays State is on a four-game win streak, its longest of the season. The Gorillas have won six of their last seven games after a 2-4 start to the season.
Fort Hays State leads the all-time series history 91-75, a history that goes all the way back to the 1916-17 season. The Tigers have won the last three meetings between the teams overall. They swept the regular season series last year with an 83-55 win in Hays and a 71-49 win in Pittsburg. The last 19 times the Tigers scored at least 70 points against the Gorillas, they won 18 of those games. The only blip in that stretch was a 101-92 loss in 2015-16. FHSU has won three of the last four meetings between the teams in Pittsburg.
Elijah Nnanabu set a new career high in points on Thursday night with 31 in the win over Missouri Southern. It was his first time scoring 20 or more for the Tigers, blasting past his previous high of 19 he reached four times. Kaleb Hammeke upped his season scoring average to 15.3 points per game after adding 22 points in Thursday's win. He also had a season-high eight assists in the game, moving his helper average to 4.1 per game.
Max Alexander is averaging 19.8 points per game for the Gorillas after starting all 13 contests. Jeramy Shaw, who just started playing for the Gorillas five games ago, is averaging 20.2 points. He has scored at least 14 points in all five of his games played so far.
Fort Hays State currently sits in second place in the MIAA, just a half game back of Northwest Missouri State (7-1) and a game ahead of third-place Central Oklahoma (6-3).