The Fort Hays State women's basketball team will look to rebound from their worst loss of the season on Saturday (Jan. 7) when they host Southwest Baptist. The Lady Tigers, who are now 12-2 (4-2 MIAA) on the year, had a five-game winning streak snapped on Wednesday at Central Missouri. Southwest Baptist comes to Hays after losing their last two games against nationally-ranked Emporia State and Washburn.
Fort Hays State and Southwest Baptist had never met in women's basketball prior to FHSU joining the MIAA for the 2006-07 season. SBU won the first three meetings, including a 1-point victory in the first matchup in Hays. Since then, the home team has won every meeting in the season and they have split the season series each of the last four years. Last season, FHSU lost to SBU in Bolivar 69-55 but rebounded and got a 78-58 win when the Bearcats came to Hays.
Southwest Baptist started the season 3-1 before losing four straight games to open MIAA play. Since then, the Bearcats have won two of their last four games, with the losses being against nationally-ranked MIAA foe's Emporia State and Washburn. SBU is 5-7 overall, but just 1-6 in conference play, with the win coming over Missouri Southern. Brittney Dukes paces SBU in scoring with 14.0 points per game, followed by Chasity Prince who averages 11.5 points and 3.8 rebounds per game. LaKendra Smith is the Bearcats top rebounder, averaging 6.9 per contest, while also putting in 10.8 points per game.
After grabbing more than five rebounds just once in the first seven games this season,
Traci Keyser has now grabbed at least five boards in six of the last seven games. Keyser reset her career high in rebounds in both games of the recent road trip, pulling down 11 at Truman and 12 at Central Missouri. In the loss to the Jennies, Keyser also recorded the first double-double of her career with 18 points to go along with the 12 boards. While the rebounding has picked up, Keyser has struggled with her shot recently, hitting just 20-of-83 (24.1%) shots during the past seven games and 12-of-50 (24.0%) of her three point attempts. Her 18 points against UCM also marks a season-high after being held to 7 the game before. Much of Keyser's scoring has come from the free throw line where she is shooting a team-leading 85.5% (59-for-69) after setting the single season school record for free throw percentage in each of the last two seasons.
Katelyn Edwards was held to her lowest scoring and rebounding outputs of the season against Central Missouri after she managed just six points and five rebounds. It was the first time all season that she failed to score at least 10 points and the second time she was held to five rebounds. Edwards burst onto the scene in her first year with the Lady Tigers, recording four double-doubles in the team's first 11 games and ranking near the conference leaders in both categories. She still leads the team in scoring (15.2 ppg), rebounding (8.6 rpg) and steals (25) and she ranks in the top 10 in the MIAA in each category. Recently, Edwards has been doing a better job distributing the ball, dishing out at least three assists in each of the last five games. She now has 33 assists on the year (2.4/game) which ranks third on the team.
