Box Score
Foul calls with under a second left sting, and that's just what the No. 6 ranked Tigers felt on Saturday (Dec. 11) in a 78-77 loss at Missouri Western. Down 21 with just over 10 minutes to play, the Tigers put together a furious rally to tie the game on a Matt Simmons layup with just over 20 seconds remaining. However, they saw their tremendous comeback erased by a foul called on a shot with five-tenths of a second remaining.
After Simmons' layup, Missouri Western opted to hold for the last shot. What looked to be the "last shot" was a fade-away 3-point field goal attempt by Jonathan Phelps that missed, but fell into the hands of James Harvey of MWSU. Harvey attempted a quick stick-back effort that was blocked by Simmons, but instead a foul was called on Simmons on the shot in what looked to be a pretty clean play. However, not securing the rebound, something the Tigers struggled with early in the second half, came back to bite in the end.
The Tigers were ice-cold shooting the ball early in the second half as the Griffons opened on a 22-4 run to take the 21-point lead after leading 44-41 at the half. Deadly three-point shooting by the Griffons helped grow the big lead, but the Tigers chipped away by crashing the boards and staying relentless, instead of folding like a lot of teams would down by more than 20 at that point in the game.
The big momentum shifter for the Tigers came with just over five minutes to play when they scored six points all on one trip to their end of the floor. Down 15, Dijon Smith hit one free-throw, but missed the second only to be rebounded by Ken Bowman who was fouled on a shot he made to cut it to 12. He missed the free-throw, but another offensive rebound by Corbin Kuntzsch led to a 3-point field goal by Moses Dayee to cut the lead to nine.
Dominique Jones came up big late, hitting two 3-point field goals in a matter of 30 seconds to cut the lead to three with 1:51 remaining. After a two-point field goal by P'Allen Stinnett of MWSU, Dayee dialed up another 3-pointer to cut the lead to two. A missed shot by MWSU led to the game-tying layup by Simmons.
Fort Hays State shot 43.5 percent from the field, its lowest shooting percentage of the season in a game. The Tigers were just 38.5 percent beyond the 3-point line after sitting at 50 percent from long range at halftime. They missed their first eight attempts from 3-point land in the second half, but hit four of their last six, courtesy of Jones and Dayee. The Griffons were a smidge better from the field at 45.8 percent and 36.7 percent beyond the arc. The difference was the free-throw line, as the Griffons hit 81.3 percent of their attempts to just 61.9 percent for the Tigers.
Dijon Smith led the Tigers in scoring with 18 points on 8-of-9 shooting from the field and 2-of-4 shooting at the free-throw line. He finished with his first double-double of the season, adding a team-high 10 rebounds. Ken Bowman finished with 14, instrumental in sparking the second-half comeback. Dominique Jones and Corbin Kuntzsch each added 13. Moses Dayee had 12 off the bench, all one 3-point field goals.
P'Allen Stinnett was nearly unconscious for the Griffons in the first half, scoring 19 of his game-high 26. Jeffrey West, the leading scorer in the MIAA was held to 13 after entering with an average of over 22 per game. Jonathan Phelps and Deionta Mitchell each had 11 for the Griffons.
This marked the second consecutive year that the Tigers were knocked off as a top-10 ranked team in St. Joseph by the Griffons. Fort Hays State suffered its first loss of the year, now 9-1 overall, 3-1 in the MIAA, while Missouri Western went to 4-5 overall and 2-2 in the MIAA.
The Tigers look to rebound and finish the semester strong at Northwest Missouri State next Saturday (Dec. 18). FHSU will be looking to avenge a loss to the Bearcats last year in Maryville when they were ranked No. 3 in the nation.
