Fort Hays State men's basketball takes a three-game win streak into Maryville, Mo., on Saturday (Dec. 20) as it takes on Northwest Missouri State in MIAA play. Both teams made the NCAA Tournament last year and hold similar records with FHSU at 7-3 overall, 1-1 MIAA and NWMSU at 7-2 overall, 1-1 MIAA. Game time is set for 3:30 pm at Bearcat Arena.

This will be the only meeting between Fort Hays State and Northwest Missouri State in the regular season. The series has been competitive in the last 10 meetings, each team winning five games. The all-time series between the schools is also a split at 10-10. NWMSU won the last two meetings, a MIAA Tournament game in 2012-13 in Kansas City and the regular season meeting last year in Hays. However, FHSU took the last meeting between the teams in Maryville by a score of 64-60 in 2012-13.

Fort Hays State has won three straight since dropping the MIAA opener to then No. 6 ranked Central Missouri on December 4. The first of the three wins was against Missouri Western to even the conference mark at 1-1, then non-conference wins of over Northwestern Oklahoma State and Bethany College by an average of 43.5 points.

Fort Hays State leads the MIAA in several categories. Defensively, as of Monday the Tigers led the MIAA in scoring defense, now at 65.4 points per game. They also led in field goal percentage defense (.417), rebounding margin (+6.9), defensive rebound percentage (.776), while ranking second in steals per game (8.1). Offensively, the Tigers are doing a great job moving the ball on offense, averaging a conference-best 19.0 assists per game. They are taking care of the ball well with a conference-best 1.9 assist/turnover ratio and +4.1 turnover margin. The Tigers are 10th nationally in assists per game and sixth in assist/turnover ratio.

By averaging 86.5 points per game and allowing just 65.4, the Tigers are 11th in the nation in scoring margin at +21.1. Their field goal percentage of 50.7 percent overall ranks 25th nationally.

Northwest Missouri State ranks eighth nationally in 3-point field goal percentage at 43.8 percent. The Bearcats' top three 3-point shooters, Zach Schneider, Conner Crooker, and Justin Pitts, are all shooting better than 43 percent beyond the 3-point line. Pitts, the team's leading scorer at 16.7 points per game, is shooting 60 percent beyond the arc (15-of-25). Like the Tigers, the Bearcats are also good with ball security, averaging just 10.1 turnovers per game to rank seventh nationally.

Craig Nicholson leads FHSU at 15.2 points and 6.3 assists per game from the point guard position. Dom Samac is adding 10.9 points per game and Achoki Moikobu is the top scorer off the bench at 10.1 points per game. Moikobu is red-hot from 3-point range, hitting at a 54.8 percent clip for the season (23-of-42). Royce Williams is just a shade under double figures, averaging 9.8 points per contest.

Jake Stoppel leads the team in rebounding at 7.4 per game. He recorded his third double-double of the season on Tuesday against Bethany with 14 points and tied his career high of 12 rebounds. Stoppel has scored in double figures three straight games and has seen his scoring average rise to 9.3 points per game.

Head coach Mark Johnson picked up his 275th win at Fort Hays State in the win over Bethany on Tuesday, which also marked the 550th win for the program inside Gross Memorial Coliseum.