WEATHERFORD, Okla. – Fort Hays State Men's Basketball made a big second half comeback, but Southwestern Oklahoma State did enough late to escape on its home floor by a score of 59-56 on Friday evening (Nov. 11) in the season opener for both squads. The Tigers trailed by 16 at the half, rallied all the way back to take a one-point lead inside three minutes to play, but could not cash in key opportunities late to finish the comeback.
Both teams struggled out of the gate offensively. Only a total of five points were scored between the teams in the first five and a half minutes. The Tigers led 9-8 seven minutes into the contest, but saw the Bulldogs close the first half on a 29-12 run and trailed 37-21 at the half. The Tigers did not have any players score more than four points in the opening half and struggled to 11 first-half turnovers.
The Tigers made the first bucket of the second half before the Bulldogs canned another three to lead by 17. However, the Tigers went on a furious rally from that point to make the game interesting over the final 10 minutes.
The Tigers used a 19-3 run between the 18:27 and 10:56 marks to cut the deficit to just one at 43-42. A quick 6-0 burst for SWOSU had the margin back to seven, but FHSU chipped away again to get back within one with 5:17 to play. Then after just over two minutes of scoreless action, the Tigers moved back into the lead when
Gabe Pieschl scored on a stick back with 2:53 to go.
The Bulldogs were able to escape with a win due to their free-throw shooting down the stretch. A pair put them back in front by one with 1:06 to go, but
Elijah Nnanabu answered with a driving layup to put the Tigers back up one with 50 seconds to play. SWOSU found a way to get to the free-throw line again and made both, then the Tigers were unable to hit a shot and SWOSU went up three on another pair of free throws. The Tigers had a chance to tie at the buzzer, but a 3-point shot fell off the mark.
Kaleb Hammeke led the Tiger scoring effort with 12 points, following by Nnanabu and Pieschl each with 10. Pieschl hauled in a career-high 13 rebounds for a double-double, while
Iyen Enaruna pulled down 10 in his Tiger debut.
Kamden Gipson and Ben Smith shared high-scoring honors for SWOSU with 13 each. Victor Ihrihri had 12 and Chris Braggs, Jr. added 11.
FHSU had four more field goals made than SWOSU. The Bulldogs made up for it by making nine 3-point field goals compared to just two by the Tigers. SWOSU hit 14 free throws compared to 10 for FHSU.
The Tigers will be back in action on Saturday evening (Nov. 12) against Arkansas Tech on the same court in Weatherford, Okla. Action is set to begin at 5:30 p.m.
