HAYS, Kan. - The Fort Hays State women's basketball team will get to prepare for a game in the comfort of its own locker room for the first time this season when it hosts Bethel College Friday (Nov. 25) in the 2016-17 home opener. The post-Thanksgiving basketball feast continues Saturday (Nov. 26) with the first men's and women's doubleheader of the year when Sterling College comes to town. Tip-off in both women's games is set for 5 p.m.
 
The Tigers enter the weekend with a perfect 4-0 record, all against regional Division II opponents. Both contests will be treated as exhibitions for Bethel and Sterling, but will count in the standings for FHSU. The Threshers hold a 1-5 record on the year after dropping their last five, while the Warriors come in on a two-game losing streak and are 5-2 overall.
 
The Tigers are 8-0 all-time against Bethel, including 2-0 under coach Tony Hobson. FHSU last faced off with the Threshers three years ago, a 78-38 Tiger victory (11/19/13). All four Tiger seniors saw the floor in that contest, with Taylor Chandler recording 13 points and three steals.
 
Fort Hays State holds a 6-3 record all-time against the Sterling Warriors, but all three losses came between 1970 and 1973. The Tigers have won the last four meetings, including a 94-45 victory last year (11/28/15), the first meeting between the schools since 1991. Nikola Kacperska tallied 14 points on 6-of-7 shooting in the win, adding three steals and two assists.

The friendly confines of Gross Memorial Coliseum have helped the Tigers to a 103-20 record overall under Hobson and a 40-3 mark at home in non-conference matchups. The Tigers have not lost a home opener since 2003 (Southwestern College, 88-70, 11/21/03).
 
The Tigers are not only off to a good start in the win column, their stats rank among the best in the country in several categories. FHSU sits in third in the country with 26 blocks and fifth in blocks per game (6.5). The Tigers are eighth-best when it comes to assist/turnover ratio, boasting a 1.46 proportion. Perhaps most impressively, FHSU sits in seventh in Division II and tops the MIAA with a 49.6 field goal percentage through four contests.

Junior Emma Stroyan has certainly helped the cause in the field goal percentage category, leading the country with a 90.9 percent effort (20-of-22). The forward has poured in her last 19 shots from the field, dating back to the fourth quarter of the season opener November 11. The NCAA DII record is 25-straight field goals, set in 1998 (Temeshia Dawkins, Wingate). Stroyan also ranks fifth in the nation with 13 blocks.
 
Jill Faxon continued her solid senior season last weekend with a pair of double-digit performances, raising her average to 15.8 points and 6.0 rebounds per game. Kacperska followed up her eight-assist game during the opening weekend with seven dimes against St. Cloud State last Friday (11/18), raising her team-best total to 17 assists this year. Sophomore Tatyana Legette paces the team with seven rebounds per night.
 
After doing so in less than a quarter of their games since Hobson took over in 2008, the Tigers have record a field goal percentage of 45 percent or higher in all four games this season, already equaling last year's total.