FHSU Athletics
HAYS, Kan. – Fort Hays State got a very balanced scoring effort in an 83-61 win over Newman University on Sunday afternoon at Gross Memorial Coliseum. The Tigers had six players score in double figures and nearly and had one player shy by just one point of making it seven. The Tigers improved to 8-3 overall, 3-2 in the MIAA, while the Jets fell to 5-7 overall and 1-5 in the MIAA.
Newman held two brief leads in the early going but the Tigers used a 12-0 run to take the lead for good, up 15-5 just over six minutes into the contest. The Tigers kept their lead in double figures from the 12:52 mark of the first half through the remainder of the game. FHSU led by as many as 25 twice in the opening half before holding a 47-28 advantage at the half.
Newman cut the lead to 15 twice in the second half, but the Tigers kept the Jets from making any big runs. The FHSU lead reached 23 twice in the second half before settling at the final margin of 22.
Traejon Davis led the scoring effort for FHSU with a career-high 16 points. He was a perfect 5-of-5 from the field, which included one 3-point field goal, and 5-of-6 at the free-throw line.
Kaleb Hammeke finished with 13 points and dished out a team-high six assists. Jaheim Holden also had 13 points. Bjarni Jonsson and Gabe Pieschl each had 11 points and Pieschl secured his third double-double of the season with a team-high 10 rebounds. Gilbert Peters also reached double figures with 10 points. Elijah Nnanabu was just one point shy of double figures with nine points.
Thomas Zevgaras led Newman with 18 points. He was 8-of-8 at the free-throw line. Stevie Strong had 15 points and Latik Murphy added 12. No Newman player had more than three rebounds in the game as the Tigers outrebounded the Jets by 11. Strong led the Jets in assists with five.
FHSU produced its best shooting percentage in an MIAA game so far this year at 56.6 percent (30-of-53). The Tigers were 45 percent beyond the 3-point line, hitting nine of 20 attempts. The Tigers held the Jets to 37.7 percent shooting from the field.
The Tiger men go on holiday break for a couple of weeks before returning to action against Central Missouri on Saturday, December 31 in Warrensburg at 3 p.m.