Fort Hays State opened 7-of-7 from the field and never looked back as it defeated Truman by a score of 76-57 on Wednesday evening. The Tigers never trailed and moved to 15-6 overall and 9-6 in the MIAA with the win. Truman fell to 6-17 overall and 4-12 in the MIAA.
All five starters for FHSU scored in double figures, led by Omar McDade with 16 points. He was 5-of-9 from the field, which included a 4-of-6 effort beyond the 3-point line. Moses Dayee also canned four 3-point field goals to finish with 14 points. Matt Simmons was a perfect 6-of-6 from the field and finished with a double-double of 15 points and 11 rebounds. It was the sixth double-double of his career. Kendrick Morse finished with 12 points and Karron McKenzie added 10. The starters accounted for 67 of Fort Hays State's 76 points.
FHSU finished at 50 percent from the field for the game, hitting 27-of-54 field goal attempts. FHSU tied its season high for 3-point field goals made in a game with 11, shooting 47.8 percent beyond the arc (11-of-23). The Tigers held the Bulldogs to just 34 percent overall and 29.2 percent in the first half.
FHSU delivered the knock-out blow by finishing the first half on a 10-0 run to lead 36-20, then extended that run to 16-0 by scoring the first six points of the second half. Truman went without a field goal from the 5:49 mark of the first half all the way to the 18:38 mark of the second half, just over a span of seven minutes.
Tom Norton led Truman with 18 points and EJ Hicks also reached double figures with 10.
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The Fort Hays State women snapped a two-game skid on Wednesday evening with a 63-56 win over Truman at Gross Memorial Coliseum. The win keeps the Lady Tigers firmly in fifth place in the MIAA standings and improves their record to 16-7 (8-7 MIAA) on the year. Katelyn Edwards had a team-high 21 points to lead the Lady Tigers while Kate Lehman had her sixth double-double of the season with 13 points and 11 rebounds. Lehman also tied her season-high with eight blocked shots.
The teams played a back-and-forth first half, with neither team leading by more than four until a layup by Edwards with 21 seconds to play in the half put FHSU up 33-27. The Lady Tigers controlled most of the second half, allowing the pesky Bearcats to cut the lead to three points on just two occasions. Becka McHenry did her best to keep Truman in the game, scoring a game-high 24 points and leading the Bulldogs with eight rebounds. She also got 13 points from Breanna Daniels, but it was not enough for the Bulldogs, who shot 32.9% (23-of-70) from the field and 36.4% (4-of-11) from long range.
Fort Hays State countered with 46.4% (26-of-56) shooting from the field, a mark that is their best in the past four games. Lehman controlled the game in the paint in the second half, grabbing eight rebounds and blocking all eight of her shots after the intermission. Lehman now has 74 blocked shots on the season, an average of 3.2 per game.
Truman falls to 12-9 (7-9 MIAA) on the year with the loss, now a game and a half behind Fort Hays State for fifth place in the conference standings.
