The shooting struggles continued early, but a gritty effort helped Fort Hays State push through its recent struggles for a 62-45 win at Lincoln University on Saturday (Jan. 10) in Jefferson City, Mo. The Tigers moved to 9-6 overall, 3-4 in the MIAA, while Craig Nicholson reached 500 assists in his career as a Tiger.

After two frustrating losses, a hard-nose effort is what the Tigers needed in order to get the road victory on Saturday. Even though the offense sputtered early in the first half, solid defense, rebounding, and ball security helped the Tigers persevere to end their two-game losing skid.

Fort Hays State trailed just twice in the game early at 2-0 and 5-2. After a Royce Williams 3-point field goal knotted the score at 5-5, Dom Samac sparked the Tigers by hitting three consecutive baskets for six points and picking off two Lincoln passes to cap a 9-0 run putting FHSU up 11-5. Achoki Moikobu's second 3-point field goal of the first half pushed Fort Hays State's lead to eight at 21-13. Lincoln responded with a 10-3 run to cut the lead down to one, but in the final two minutes a Drew Kite layup and James Fleming 3-pointer pushed the FHSU lead back to six at halftime, 29-23. Moikobu led FHSU in scoring at the half with nine points, all on 3-point field goals.

Lincoln trimmed the lead down to two with the first two buckets of the second half, but FHSU held its ground. Up by four with 14:49 to go, FHSU went on a 12-0 run to take control by 16 at 48-32. Samac was the spark once again, scoring consecutive buckets to push the lead to eight before a Nicholson 3-point play to make it 11, giving FHSU its first double-figure lead of the day. Mirroring the end of the first half, a Kite layup and Fleming three capped the run. Fort Hays State held Lincoln without a field goal from the 14:49 to 6:40 marks, Lincoln's only points in that span coming on four free-throws. The lead grew to 21 for FHSU at the 7:47 mark as they would cruise the rest of the way to win by 17.

Fort Hays State outrebounded Lincoln 31-28 to end a two-game run of getting outrebounded. FHSU finished with 14 assists compared to just seven turnovers, a two-to-one ratio that is more characteristic of the Tigers this season as one of the best assist/turnover ratio teams in the nation. FHSU forced Lincoln into 17 turnovers.

Moikobu led Fort Hays State with 15 points, followed by Samac with 12 points. Samac and Williams tied for a team-high seven rebounds each and Nicholson had a team-high five assists. His first assist of the game gave him 500 for his career, just the third Tiger in FHSU history to reach the milestone - previously accomplished by Raymond Lee (899) and Mark Wilson (556).

Malcolm McDonald led all scorers in the game with 21 points for Lincoln. Joshua Buie, the leading scorer for Lincoln so far this year, had 13 and a team-best four assists.

Shooting percentages were nearly identical, Lincoln at 41.7 percent and FHSU at 41.4 percent overall. FHSU was 40.2 percent beyond the 3-point line, 9-of-22. The Tigers were a perfect 5-of-5 at the free-throw line as Lincoln committed only 11 fouls in the game. FHSU attempted 22 more field goals in the game than the Blue Tigers.

The Tigers are now just two games back in the loss column of first place as Northwest Missouri State lost at home on Saturday to Washburn. Central Oklahoma, the next opponent for FHSU, is now in a cluster of three teams (includes Northwest Missouri and Lindenwood) leading the MIAA at 5-2 in conference play. The conference is jam packed in the middle with several teams at either 4-3 or 3-4 in conference play. Fort Hays State hosts Central Oklahoma on Thursday (Jan. 15) at Gross Memorial Coliseum, tipoff set for 7:30 pm.