FHSU Athletics
ST. JOSEPH, Mo. – Fort Hays State picked up a big regular season sweep of Missouri Western on Thursday night. The Tigers pulled even with the Griffons in the MIAA standings with a 74-61 win, moving to 12-4 overall and 4-3 in the MIAA, while the Griffons moved to 12-6 overall, also 4-3 in the MIAA.
The Tigers used their usual brand of suffocating defense to produce the win. A great offensive start by FHSU created a large lead early, which made it very difficult for MWSU to ever make much of a threat throughout the evening. FHSU opened with a 23-7 lead just over 10 minutes into the game and led by as many as 21 in the first half at the 7:55 mark. However, the Griffons closed the margin to 11 by halftime at 38-27.
The Griffons brought the lead back inside 10 briefly with the first basket of the second half, but the Tigers pushed the lead back into double figures for good with their first basket of the second frame in response. The lead eventually reached 20 on a Muhamed Kante jumper with eight minutes to go and a three-point play by Dan Mukuna stretched the lead to 25, 70-45, with 6:35 to go. It was the largest lead of the game.
The Griffons scored 16 of their 34 second half points in the final six minutes, which aided bringing a large margin by the Tigers back down to 13 by game's end. As was the case in Hays, Marko Pavlovic led the Griffons in scoring again with 15 points. However, the Tigers shut down the Griffons beyond the 3-point line to an abysmal 2-of-17 performance (11.8 percent).
The Tigers had an efficient night offensively, shooting 56.6 percent from the field. That included a 53.8 percent effort beyond the 3-point line (7-of-13). Jahvari Martino had three of the 3-point field goals, finishing with 19 points.
Dan Mukuna led the way for Fort Hays State with 23 points with a strong 9-of-13 effort from the field. He was a perfect 5-of-5 at the free-throw line. Kyle Grill led the Tigers in rebounds with eight, while nearly reaching double figures in scoring with nine points. Lucas Hammeke also had nine points and led the Tigers in assists with six.
Fort Hays State has now won three of the last five meetings with Missouri Western in St. Joseph.
Up next
Fort Hays State has another opportunity at a regular season sweep on Saturday when it plays at Northwest Missouri State. The Tigers won the first meeting of the season 67-50 in Hays back on New Year's Day. It's the final game of a four-game road swing for the Tigers with tipoff set for 3:30 p.m. in Maryville.