Box Score

The No. 8 ranked Tigers survived a giant scare from long-time rival Emporia State Wednesday night (Jan. 19) at Gross Memorial Coliseum in Hays, winning 81-80. ESU had an open look at the final shot from about 12 feet, which was off the mark and the Tigers secured the rebound for the win. Fort Hays State moved to 15-2 overall and 9-2 in the MIAA, while Emporia State is now 9-8, 6-5 in the MIAA.

The Tigers could not shake the Hornets as they led 77-70 with 53 seconds remaining after a pair of Moses Dayee free-throws. But, Xavier Burnette of ESU buried a guarded 3-pointer in the corner to cut the lead to four with 45 seconds.

Dominique Jones then stepped to the line for FHSU and buried another pair of free-throws to put the Tigers up six, but the Tigers fouled Matt Boswell with 27 seconds remaining, who cut the lead back to four with a pair of free-throws of his own.

Then, the Tigers could not get the ball in on the in-bounds before a five-second count, even though coach Mark Johnson was calling for a timeout that was not granted after a discussion by the officials of when he called the timeout. That led to another 3-point bucket by Michael Tyler of ESU, who was nearly unconscious in the second half, cutting the lead to just one with 24 seconds to play.

Jones stepped back to the line to knock down another pair of free-throws with 20 seconds remaining, to stretch the lead back to three, but Tyler put in a layup with 11 seconds remaining to put the score at 81-80 in favor of FHSU.

That set the stage for the final drama of the evening. Corbin Kuntzsch was fouled with nine seconds remaining, but he could not convert either of his free-throws, which set up the final shot attempt by the Hornets. Travis Dykman drove just to the right of the free-throw lane, but missed a good look at the basket in the final seconds to allow FHSU to escape with the win.

Emporia State was red hot from the field throughout the night, outshooting the Tigers 51.7 percent to 47.6 percent. The Hornets buried 55.6 percent of their 3-point attempts (10-of-18). It was just the second game this year that the Tigers were outshot in shooting percentage, the other being the one-point loss at Missouri Western.

Ken Bowman provided the offensive punch for the Tigers on the inside, posting his second double-double of the season with 21 points and 11 rebounds. Jones finished with 18 points and Kuntzsch and Dayee each had 11.

Michael Tyler had a huge game for ESU with 27 points and 10 rebounds. Matt Boswell had 14, Adam Holthaus 13, and Xavier Burnette had 12.

Fort Hays State remains one game back of Missouri Southern in the loss column in the MIAA standings. The Tigers begin the second half of the MIAA schedule on Saturday at Lincoln University, which they defeated 95-79 earlier this year in Hays.