FHSU Athletics
No. 3/9 Fort Hays State Women's Basketball (0-0, 0-0 MIAA)
at the 2022 D2CCA Tip-Off Classic
Kansas City, Mo. • Municipal Auditorium
vs. No. 6/7 West Texas A&M (0-0, 0-0 LSC)
Saturday, November 5 • 1:30 p.m.
Radio • KFIX (96.9)
CLICK HERE TO LISTEN LIVE
vs. Southern Nazarene (0-0, 0-0 GAC)
Sunday, November 6 • 1:30 p.m.
Radio • KJLS (103.3)
CLICK HERE TO LISTEN LIVE
The third-ranked Fort Hays State women's basketball team and seven other top programs from across the country will get an early start to the 2022-23 season with this weekend's D2CCA Tip-Off Classic in Kansas City, Mo. The Tigers will start the year against sixth-ranked West Texas A&M Saturday before facing off with Southern Nazarene on Sunday, with both games beginning at 1:30 p.m. inside historic Municipal Auditorium in downtown KC.
Seven of the eight teams competing in this year's Classic are ranked or receiving votes in the preseason WBCA DII Coaches Poll, including four in the top 25.
Daily tickets are available in advance or at the door for $20 per day and are good for all four games of each session. Live video will also be available via The MIAA Network. Fans can purchase access to a single contest for $10, a month-long pass for $25 or a season-long, all-access pass for $125. Both the monthly and year-long passes gain access to any event in any sport streamed on The MIAA Network.
2022 D2CCA Tip-Off Classic Schedule
Saturday, November 5
10:30 AM – Arena Opens
11:30 AM – Nebraska Kearney (Home) vs. Southern Nazarene (Away)
1:30 PM – #3 Fort Hays State (Home) vs. #6 West Texas A&M (Away)
3:30 PM – #19 Missouri Southern (Home) vs. #23 Lubbock Christian (Away)
5:30 PM – Missouri Western (Home) vs. Minnesota Duluth (Away)
Sunday, November 6
10:30 AM – Arena Opens
11:30 AM – #6 West Texas A&M (Home) vs. Nebraska Kearney (Away)
1:30 PM – Southern Nazarene (Home) vs. #3 Fort Hays State (Away)
3:30 PM – Minnesota Duluth (Home) vs. #19 Missouri Southern (Away)
5:30 PM – #23 Lubbock Christian (Home) vs. Missouri Western (Away)
Surprisingly, this is not the earliest start to a season in program history. The Tigers defeated Philadelphia University 95-82 on Nov. 3, 2000 at the Disney Tip-Off Classic in Orlando in the earliest recorded contest in team history.
The Tigers are coming off one of the best seasons in program history, winning 30 games for the fourth time while winning both the MIAA regular season and conference tournament titles. FHSU earned the No. 1 seed in the 2022 NCAA Division II Central Region Championship for the fourth time and reached the regional title (round of 16) game for the third time in the last seven years.
Last Time Out
The Tigers hung around with Kansas State for much of the first three quarters in an exhibition contest earlier this week (Oct. 31) before the Wildcats pulled away over the final 10 minutes to win by 11, 74-63. Fort Hays State trailed by just one point after three frames and led in both the first and second quarters. Katie Wagner led the Tigers with 17 points while adding nine rebounds and four assists. Clary Donica, a graduate transfer, led the team with 10 rebounds while Sydney Golladay dished out a team-best five assists.
Tiger Notables
- The Tigers are 59-41 in games played in the state of Missouri under Hobson.
- Fort Hays State is 15-10 when playing in Kansas City under Hobson, including a 14-10 record inside Municipal Auditorium and a 1-0 record at Rockhurst.
- The Tigers have won their last 49 non-conference regular season games and 82 of their last 83 (last loss - 70-68 at No. 10 Concordia St. Paul, 11/15/2014).
- The Tigers have won their last 18 season openers, the longest such streak in program history. FHSU is 36-17 all-time in season openers.
- FHSU is 8-1 against teams currently in the Great American Conference (SNU - Sunday's contest) under Hobson and 17-12 all-time.
- The Tigers surpassed the 20-win plateau for the 11th-straight season last year, the longest active streak in Division II.
- Fort Hays State has 210 victories since the start of the 2014-15 season, 28 more than any other team in the MIAA (ESU - 182).
- Fort Hays State finished last season ranked seventh in the final WBCA Division II Coaches poll. The Tigers also topped all DII in both GPA (3.814) and attendance (2,184 fans per game). FHSU was one of two schools to rank in the top 25 in all three end-of-season ranks (Ashland - 6th academic, 9th coaches poll, 11th attendance).
The Coach
- Tony Hobson enters his 15th season at Fort Hays State and his 31st season as a head coach at the collegiate level in 2022-23.
- He is 312-109 as a Tiger and 725-215 all-time.
- Hobson ranks third all-time amongst MIAA head coaches with 312 wins at FHSU.
- He ranks in the top 30 in win percentage amongst all active NCAA head coaches and in the top 10 in Division II.
- Hobson earned the Kansas Basketball Coaches Association Women's Four-Year College Coach of the Year award last season, his 19th career coach of the year award.
- He has coached four All-Americans, four Academic All-Americans, two conference players of the year and 48 All-MIAA performers over the last 14 seasons.
Roster Breakdown
- Fort Hays State returns eight players from last year's MIAA champions while adding six new faces, including two true freshmen and four transfers
- The Tigers bring back a pair of All-MIAA performers in Katie Wagner (second team) and Olivia Hollenbeck (2x honorable mention).
- The Tigers are remarkably young, with all but one player entering the year with at least three years of eligibility remaining. FHSU boasts one graduate student, 11 sophomores and two true freshmen on the squad this year.
- FHSU lost several key players from last year, including All-MIAA performers in Jaden Hobbs, Whitney Randall and Cydney Bergmann. Players not on this year's team accounted for 49.2 percent of the scoring, 39.1 percent of the rebounding and 53.7 percent of the assists last season.
- Players hail from four different states, including five from Kansas, five from Nebraska, three from Iowa and one from Oklahoma
- Nine players signed with FHSU out of high school, while five current Tigers are transfers.
A Look at the Schedule
- Because FHSU was selected to play in the 2022 D2CCA Tip-Off Classic, the Tigers are scheduled for 30 regular-season contests this year. It is the longest regular season schedule in the program's DII history and the third-most regular season contests in team history (32 games in both 1982-83 and 1986-87).
- The MIAA will once again play a 22-game schedule. FHSU will play Washburn and Emporia State once on the road, Northeastern State and Rogers State once at home and the other nine schools twice, once at home and once on the road.
- Six of FHSU's eight scheduled non-conference games are against DII opponents, with all six picked to finish no worse than fifth in their conference preseason polls.
- Nine scheduled games are against teams that qualified for the 2022 NCAA DII Championship Tournament, including West Texas A&M (South Central region champ), Minnesota State, Colorado Mesa, Missouri Southern, Missouri Western (Central region champ) and Nebraska-Kearney.
- The Tigers are scheduled to play four teams for the first time during the Hobson era - West Texas A&M, Southern Nazarene, Augustana and Colorado Mesa.
Scouting the Lady Buffs
- West Texas A&M reached the national quarterfinals a year ago, defeating Lubbock Christian in the South Central Regional championship game before falling to eventual national champion Glenville State in the Elite Eight.
- WT was picked atop the Lone Star Conference preseason poll, collecting 31 of 39 first-place votes.
- The Lady Buffs return a pair of second team All-LSC honorees from a year ago, including Karley Motschenbacher and Zamorye Roberts.
- WT won its 18th regular season Lone Star Conference Championship and its 16th conference tournament title last season, going 26-11 overall and 13-3 in conference play.
- Head coach Josh Prock is in his second season with the Lady Buffs. He is 235-142 in 14 seasons as a collegiate head coach. Previously, Prock coached at Eastern New Mexico University and Howard Payne University.
Scouting the Crimson Storm
- Southern Nazarene turned in a record of 20-10 last season, placing second in the GAC regular season standings behind Southwestern Oklahoma State at 15-7 in league play before losing in the conference tournament quarterfinals against Arkansas Tech.
- SNU was picked second in the Great American Conference preseason poll, receiving two of 12 first-place votes.
- The Crimson Storm won the GAC tournament in the 2020-21 COVID-shortened season, advancing to the NCAA DII national tournament for the first time since they joined DII in 2014-15.
- SNU returns one All-GAC first team performer in Cassandra Awatt. The guard led her team with 13.4 points and 8.3 rebounds per game last season.
- Former Tiger Lauryn Reither is a senior on the Crimson Storm this season after totaling 4.0 points, 1.7 rebounds, 1.2 assists and 1.1 steals per game last year.
- Head coach Trent May enters his fifth season at SNU with a record of 66-41. This is his 21st season coaching at the collegiate level, with a lifetime record of 388-194. Previous coaching stops include Bethany College (Kan.) and Grand Canyon University.