Fort Hays St. FHSU 15-3,10-3 Mid-America Intercollegiate

Neb.-Kearney UNK 7-12,3-10 Mid-America Intercollegiate

Fort Hays St. FHSU

15-3,10-3 Mid-America Intercollegiate

Final

Jan. 29, 2022

Neb.-Kearney UNK

7-12,3-10 Mid-America Intercollegiate

Score By Periods
Team	1	2	F
Fort Hays St. FHSU	40	31	71
Neb.-Kearney UNK	26	30	56

Summary
Box Score

Corbey R. Dorsey

Game Recap: Men's Basketball | 1/29/2022 7:11:00 PM

Hot Start, Hot Shooting Lifts Hays

Kearney, Neb. – The Fort Hays State Tigers shot 63 percent from the field and got a big effort from guard Kaleb Hammeke to down Nebraska-Kearney, 71-56, Saturday night at the Health & Sports Center.

This was the 137th all-time meeting between the two rivals with the Tigers (15-3, 10-3) taking this year's series. UNK (7-12, 3-10) hosts Lincoln Monday at 3 p.m. in a game that was postponed in early January due to COVID issues within the Blue Tigers (1-15, 0-3) program.

"They are good. They aren't a UCO (Central Oklahoma) from a physical stand point where you watch them warmups and go "whoa, that's a Division I team". But when the game starts, they do all the things it takes to win basketball games," said UNK head coach Kevin Lofton. "They don't make a lot of mistakes, they are one of the top defensive teams in the nation so you don't get a lot of opportunities there and offensively they are pretty efficient."

Hays led for 35 minutes as they tallied 38 points in the paint, were plus 13 on the glass and got out to a 40-26 halftime advantage. The 2021 MIAA Freshman of the Year, Hammeke went for 23 points, seven rebounds, five fouls drawn and three assists. He made 9 of 13 shots (1 of 2 3's) and 4 of 7 freebies.

A 12-3 run capped by a Gilbert Peters bucket after a Loper turnover made it 27-17 Tigers with five minutes left in the half. FHSU led by at least six points the rest of the way with UNK having another solid night from the arc (13 of 29) but shooting just 38 percent overall. Besides Hammeke, fellow starters Jared Vitztum went for 15 points and Nyjee Wright added 10 points on 4 of 5 shooting. Off the bench, Peters had eight points in nine minutes.

"Hammeke was the guy ... we couldn't stay in front of him. He created a lot of offense for other guys because of it," said Lofton. "They are NCAA Tournament-good and we didn't have a lot of answers for them. They are rock solid on defense ... they don't foul, they wall up, guards make it tough to get it inside."

Redshirt junior reserve guard Parker Badding (Carroll, Ia.) led Kearney with 16 points on 4 of 6 three-points shooting. Also off the bench, junior guard Matt Brien (New Zealand) hit two threes to score six with country man Sean Murphy at 14 points and a team-best seven rebounds. He made 5 of 7 shots (4 of 4 3's) to have a season-best point total. Over the last three games the Lopers are a stellar 42 of 81 (52%) from downtown.

"We shoot 40 percent from the three-point line. That's our strength so it makes sense we look for that shot," said Lofton. "We had to rely on that a lot more than we would've liked to."

UNK heads to Central Oklahoma and Newman next weekend.

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