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Fort Hays State and Lincoln will meet in women's basketball for the first time on Wednesday (Dec. 1) at Gross Memorial Coliseum. Lincoln joins the Mid-America Intercollegiate Athletics Association (MIAA) this season as the 12th member after previously being a member of the Heartland Conference. The game, which will be the MIAA opener for both teams, begins at 5:30 pm and will be followed by the men's contest.
The Lady Tigers are beginning their fifth season as a member of the MIAA. Since joining the conference for the 2006-07 season, FHSU is just 1-3 in conference openers, including a 68-62 loss at Nebraska-Omaha last season. The only year FHSU won its conference opener was 2008-09, defeating Nebraska-Omaha 87-70 in Hays.
Fort Hays State enters conference play with a 3-1 record, but is coming off its first loss of the season last week against Newman. Lincoln comes into the game with a 1-3 record. The Blue Tigers defeated Rockhurst 59-57 in overtime to start the season, but have since dropped games to Missouri-St. Louis, Illinois-Springfield and Newman. The common opponent for the teams is Newman, which defeated Lincoln 84-74 on the road just four days after downing the Tigers 66-52 at home.
Junior Kimber Weiser is coming off a strong performance against Newman, where she scored a career-high 20 points on 10-of-19 shooting from the field. The 20 points doubled her previous career-high of 10, set last season against Regis and is the most points scored by a Lady Tiger this season. Weiser is the Tigers third-leading scorer at 9.0 points per game in only 15 minutes of action.
In her first year with the Tigers, junior transfer Rhys Pihl is leading the team by averaging 11.5 points per game. She is currently the only player on the team averaging double-figures. She is shooting 40% (10-of-25) from behind the 3-point line and 75% (12-of-16) from the free throw line.
Despite missing the first game of the year with a knee injury, senior Kara Champlin has a team-high 17 rebounds and is averaging 5.7 rebounds per game. Champlin is also shooting a team-high 72.7% (8-of-11) from the field and is one of three Tigers (along with Traci Keyser and Whitney Taylor) who have not missed a free throw this season.
Senior transfer Kaniesha Pettaway continues to help the team in a variety of ways. She leads the team and is fourth in the conference in assists, averaging 4.3 per game, while also ranking second on the team in steals per game (2.5) and minutes played (23.8). Pettaway has started all four games for the Tigers at point guard and she is currently averaging 2.3 points per game.
Lincoln, which was picked to finish last in the MIAA by both the coaches and the media, is led by senior guard Cherakie Barrett who is averaging 13.5 points, 5.0 rebounds and 2.5 assists per game. Vivian Essuon is averaging 12.3 points per game and Jakeya Mitchell is adding 10.3 points per game.
Conference play continues for the Tigers on Friday (Dec. 3) as Nebraska-Omaha visits Hays for a 5:30 pm matchup. It will be the final home game of the first semester for the Tigers, who then visit Washburn, Missouri Western and Northwest Missouri State to close out the calendar year.
