HAYS, Kan. – Kaleb Hammeke hoisted Fort Hays State to a 59-57 victory over Lincoln with a baseline jumper as time expired Thursday night (Feb. 9) at Gross Memorial Coliseum. Hammeke shook free of his defenders and hit an off-balance turn-around shot to call game, pushing FHSU to 16-8 overall, 11-7 in the MIAA, while Lincoln moved to 15-6 overall, 11-6 in the MIAA.
 
The win could potentially be big for the Tigers in the stretch run for MIAA Tournament seeding. Though they remain fifth in the conference standings, they now have a potential tiebreak against Lincoln by winning both games of the regular season series. Lincoln is only a half game in front of the Tigers in the conference standings along with Emporia State, another team the Tigers hold a potential tiebreak on by winning the only regular season game between the teams.
 
The game was a tight battle throughout with seven being the largest of the game. The Tigers reached that margin right out of the blocks with a 7-0 run to open the game. Lincoln eventually pulled back even at 12-12 midway through the first half, but the Tigers made one more 7-0 burst to lead 19-12 with 7:33 on the clock. The lead reached seven one more time before the FHSU margin rested at two by halftime, 30-28. Gabe Pieschl led the first-half effort for FHSU with seven points and five rebounds. He went on to post a near double-double of nine points and nine rebounds by game's end.
 
The second half was even tighter as the FHSU lead reached five just once at the 7:05 mark on a Traejon Davis 3-point shot on the left wing. Up to that point, Lincoln pulled even with the Tigers twice and even took the lead by two a couple times on 3-point field goals. FHSU held the advantage all the way from 10:37 down to the 1:25 mark when Lincoln hit a pair of free throws to tie the game at 55-55.
 
Hammeke put the Tigers back on top with a driving layup with just under a minute to go, but Artese Stapleton, who led the Blue Tigers with 19 points, answered with a tough runner of his own with about eight seconds remaining. Hammeke zipped up the court and drove the lane and was fouled before getting a shot off, just Lincoln's sixth foul to stop the clock at 2.6 seconds. After a timeout by the Tigers, Hammeke curled off a screen to get the inbounds on the baseline, spun, fired and the clock struck zero during his game-winner's flight to the basket.
 
The game-winner pushed Hammeke to a game-high 20 points. He was 7-of-15 from the field and 5-of-8 at the free-throw line. Davis gave the Tigers 10 points off the bench. The four Tiger reserves to play in the game combined for 24 points to supplement 35 from the starters.

Fort Hays State was able to escape another strong rebounding performance from Lincoln. The Blue Tigers outrebounded FHSU 39-28, including a 15-3 advantage in offensive rebounds. They scored 17 more second-chance points than the Tigers, holding a 22-5 advantage in that category. Stapleton led the rebounding effort for Lincoln with 10, picking up a double-double to go with his 19 points. Sai Witt and DJ Richardson reached double figures in scoring with 10 each.
 
Fort Hays State will honor its five seniors on Saturday afternoon (Feb. 11) hosting Central Missouri for the final home game of the regular season at 4 p.m. inside Gross Memorial Coliseum. The Mules will enter at 11-12 overall, 7-12 MIAA.