Box Score Kearney, Neb. – The Nebraska Kearney men's basketball got off to a white hot start and never looked back in a 79-59 victory over Fort Hays State Saturday night at the Health & Sports Center.
A season-high crowd of 3,721 watched the Lopers improve to 16-8 (11-6) and remain in sole possession of fifth place in the league standings.
Teams five through eight at the end of the year host an MIAA Tournament first round game on Monday, March 2nd. The first four clubs receive a first round bye.
Leading from start to finish and ahead by as many as 34 points, UNK got out to a 12-2 lead by the 16:24 mark. Showing great balance, all five starters were already in the scoring column by that time.
The Lopers entered halftime up 48-20 as they shot 63.0% from the field (6 of 10 threes), went 8 of 8 at the line and held Hays to 27% shooting. The Tigers (16-10, 9-8), facing some serious on the ball pressure, also committed 11 turnovers.
Things didn't get any better to start the final 20 minutes as junior forward
Connor Beranek (Ravenna) stole the ball and was fouled while dunking to score Kearny's first three points.
Later, UNK greeted a Tiger zone with a dunk by junior post
Ethan Brozek (Norfolk Catholic H.S.) to make it 63-30 at the 13:54 mark. Hays finished on a 22-8 run to make the score look closer than it was.
"This is the first time since Missouri Southern came in here (December 4th) that we had a number of players have a good game," said UNK co-head coach
Tom Kropp. "We came out and were really determined on defense."
On his birthday, Beranek scored a game-high 20 by going 7 of 7 at the line and 6 of 15 (1 of 3 threes) from the field. Playing just 26 minutes, he also had eight boards (six defensive), five assists and three steals.
Next, Iowa freshman
Trey Lansman had 14 points, seven rebounds (three offensive) and three blocks with Minnesota freshman guard
Isaiah McKay sinking all four three point shots he took to score 12.
Among other Loper starters, Omaha sophomore guard
Kevin Dineen had six points, three assists, two steals, two rebounds and no turnovers. He leads the MIAA in assist-to-turnover ratio at 2.9. Showing how good UNK's night was going, before Dinnen lost a defensive rebound, he threw a behind the back pass while falling out of bounds that Beranek turned into a layup.
Finally, Pierce freshman reserve
Lane Rohrich hit 4 of 5 shots to score 10, two off his season high.
"If you had to pick out one big positive, it was out defense in the first half. If we could copy that effort and do that consistently, we could make a run," said Kropp.
Hays got 12 points from two starters, James Fleming and Achoki Moikobu.
UNK heads to Northeastern State and Central Oklahoma to close out the regular season.
