No. 5 Fort Hays State celebrated Senior Night with another rivalry win, taking down Washburn, 74-67, on Wednesday (Feb. 18) at Gross Memorial Coliseum.
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FHSU (23-2, 15-1 MIAA) closed out the home portion of its schedule with a perfect 16-0 mark, achieving the undefeated regular season home record for the first time under head coach
Tony Hobson.Â
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Down one (9-8) inside 15 minutes to go in the first, FHSU ran off three runs of five or more over the next seven minutes, outscoring the Ichabods 18-5 in that span with bursts of seven, six and five unanswered to lead, 26-14 with 7:11 to go in the half.Â
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After WU cut the lead to seven (28-21) near the four-minute mark, six straight free throws for FHSU pushed the advantage back to double-digits, where it stayed until the final minute of the half, when the Ichabods closed the gap to nine (34-25) at the pause.
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Relatively even through the first four minutes of the second half, a
Keriann Shaw jumper at 15:34 put FHSU's lead at 10 (41-31) and started final burst of the night – a flurry of 11 unanswered that put the Tigers ahead, 52-33, with 12:39 on the clock.
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WU, however, did not go away and outscored FHSU 19-8 (including a 9-0 run) over the next six minutes to bring the deficit to eight with 6:45 left in the game. Four straight free throws from Lehman again pushed the lead to 12 (64-52) in the next minute, but another rally for the Ichabods (7-0) saw the lead shrink to five with 3:42 to play.Â
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Soon after, a three-pointer from the Ichabods' Erika Lane made it a two-possession game (66-62) with 2:39 to play, but Faxon answered with a jumper on the opposite end to keep the Tigers in control. Another Ichabod three-pointer with 1:03 to go again kept things closed, but a jumper from Shaw and two free throws from
Beth Bohuslavsky iced the game for the Tigers.
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FHSU shot 88.9 percent from the free throw line, hitting a season high 32 of its 36 attempts after starting a perfect 16-of-16 from the stripe. In the field, FHSU hit 41.7 percent of its attempts, though the team hit just two three-pointers in the game (tying a season-low).
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Bohuslavsky had a career night, finishing with 25 points (a career-high) and seven rebounds, leading the team in points and rebounds for the first time this season. 14 of Bohuslavsky's points came on free throws (also a career-high), as the junior was perfect from the charity stripe to go with a 5-of-8 effort from the field.
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Joining her in double-digits were
Jill Faxon and
Kate Lehman, who each had 16. Lehman was also perfect from the free throw line, hitting 12 (a career-high) to go with six blocks and five rebounds. Faxon was second on the team with six rebounds.
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Keriann Shaw just missed the 10-point threshold, hitting 4-of-6 from the field and finishing with nine tallies and five rebounds.
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For the Ichabods, Taylor Ignoto led the team with 24 points while Honor Duvall added 16. Casyn Buchman had eight rebounds and nine points.
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Lehman, Shaw,
Christine Russell and
Jenna Ulrich were honored pregame for their contributions to the FHSU program as part of Senior Night.
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The Tigers close out the regular season with a three-game road trip, beginning Saturday (Feb. 21) at Nebraska-Kearney.