 |  |
Emporia State Upsets Fort Hays State, 65-61
By David Boyce
The way the quarterfinals of the MIAA Men's Basketball Tournament have played out the last three years, it shouldn't be a surprise that No. 7 seed Emporia State beat No. 2 seed Fort Hays State.
Emporia State started the recent tradition and added another chapter Friday night when it beat Fort Hays 65-61 at Municipal Auditorium.
Earlier in the day No. 1 seed Central Missouri lost to No. 8 seed Washburn. It's the first time in tournament history that the No. 1 and No. 2 seeds were beaten in the quarterfinals.
Back in 2008, Emporia State became the first No. 8 seed to beat a No. 1 seed in the MIAA Tournament. It happened again last year.
"Part of it is having your back against the wall," Emporia State coach David Moe said. "But if you keep coming in as a seventh or eighth seed you are going to be looking for a job soon."
This year's upset might be bigger than the one in 2008. Fort Hays beat Emporia State 94-47 in Hays, Kan., in the last regular-season game for both teams.
"Obviously, from the last time we played them we had to make some changes," Moe said. "The one difference that was obvious is we knew we had to compete. I thought we couldn't have played any harder, and more together or any tougher than we did tonight."
Emporia State led the entire second half. Early in the second half the Hornets built a 41-29 lead.
Fort Hays battled back and closed to 44-41 with 9:05 left. Fort Hays coach Mark Johnson said his team played hard throughout, but the Tigers weren't playing smart.
"You have to take your hat off to them because they are players," Emporia State guard Lamar Wilbern said. "For example, I was guarding (Willie) Hassell and I thought I was doing a pretty good job on him and he hit the shot. That's the type of team they are. They are going to make plays so you have to keep fighting.
"This game was a big effort game for us."
Fort Hays brought the same effort, but the silly mistakes really cost the Tigers, especially with 1:15 left. The Tigers had just scored on a three-pointer by Hassell, cutting Emporia State's lead to 55-53.
"We foul 70 feet from the basket in a two-point game," Johnson said.
Tim Niles made the Tigers pay. He made both free throws to push the lead back to four points.
Emporia State was nearly automatic from the line, making 23 of 24 free throw attempts. In contrast, Fort Hays made just 10 of 17 from the line.
"We took care of the ball, we had six turnovers, we made free throws," Moe said. "That just shows where your heart is and where your head is at. We took care of the ball.
"We didn't make shots, but we wanted to give ourselves a chance and not be the team that breaks down."
Fort Hays committed 17 turnovers. Those kinds of errors nullified the Tigers' superior shooting from the field. Fort Hays made 46 percent of its shots and Emporia State shot 37 percent from the field, including 27 percent in the second half.
"They made more plays and better decisions than we did," Johnson said. "I don't think last week's game had any effect on our performance.
"Our problem wasn't our effort. Our problem was our ineptness. The game came down to two things. We turn it over 17 times and we make 10 of 17 free throws."
After nine lead changes early in the first half, Emporia State slowly took over, turning a 14-13 deficit into a 29-20 lead.
The Hornets went into halftime ahead 33-27 even though Fort Hays made half of its shots and pulled down seven more rebounds than the Hornets.
"They came after us," Fort Hays guard Corbin Kuntzsch said. "We didn't do a good job of taking care of the ball."
Emporia State has had an up and down season and now stands at 14-14. Fort Hays dropped to 22-6.
"We've been run over. We've been bad at times, but we've always showed character," Moe said. "That allows you to be resilient because you don't get discouraged. Character is the No. 1 thing that we've shown."
To reach David Boyce, contributing writer for the MIAA, e-mail dboyce@themiaa.com.
