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Tiger women win in final seconds
2/17/2008
By NICK McQUEEN
Hays Daily News
On paper, Saturday's Mid-America Intercollegiate Athletics Association women's game at Gross Memorial Coliseum should have seemed like two scrub teams clawing for survival in their respective 2007-08 conference seasons.
What showed up instead were two teams playing as if they were vying for a conference championship, exchanging heavyweight blows for 40 minutes in a now-or-never type battle.
Fort Hays State University did its best to make sure the fight for that eighth and final spot in the MIAA's postseason tournament stays interesting as the regular season winds down, handing Missouri Western State University an 81-79 defeat, and forcing a three-way tie for that eighth spot.
It took a last-second jumper by Tiger senior guard Meshia Mason to get it done, taking advantage of the biggest statistical disparity in the game.
"I saw (senior forward Brianna Willhite), she was being a senior and taking the shot," Mason said. "It looked good, and I thought it was in. I thought I was running over there for nothing."
After the Willhite miss as time ticked away, the 5-foot-3 Mason grabbed the Tigers' 29th offensive board, dribbled out and nailed the go-ahead basket, a 10-footer in front of two Griffon defenders on the left baseline.
The win snapped a four-game losing streak for the Tigers, and was the seventh loss in a row for the defending MIAA champion Griffons.
"To have something like this happen is exactly what the kids needed for something to go their way," Tiger coach Annette Wiles said.
The rebounding edge certainly went the Tigers' way. The Griffons were outrebounded 47-31 on the game, and outdone 29-18 on the offensive boards.
"Exactly what we did incorrectly all game long was what ended up losing the game for us" said Western coach Lynn Plett.
Despite hitting just 39.5 percent from the floor, the Tigers scored 33 second-chance points, and seven off 11 Western turnovers.
"Our offense played well, for the most part, there was just one outstanding statistic," Plett said. "That was certainly the difference tonight."
Willhite ended the night with 22 points for Fort Hays, one of four Tigers in double figures. Senior forward Jill Johnson poured in 24 for the Griffons, going 10-for-15 from the field and 4-for-4 from the free throw line. Western senior guard Yanique Javois, who scored 24 in the Griffons' 22-point shellacking of the Tigers in St. Joseph, Mo., had just 14, with eight coming in the first half.
"They have some premiere players," Wiles said of Missouri Western. "Yanique is a tremendous player and you're not going to go into a game and hold her to zero points, but we ran a lot of different players at her all night long."
Missouri Western led by as many as six in the first half, but had several second-half leads. The Griffons, who shot 8-for-10 from the free throw line for the game, led 75-72 with 2:19 to play and 77-74 with just over a minute to play. Tiger senior guard Naomi Bancroft, hit the last of her four 3-pointers for the game to tie the game with 1:07 to play.
"After so many times of getting beat over and over gain, we didn't learn from it and it caught up with us," Plett said.
Bancroft was 4-for-13 from long range, as the Tigers hit nine bombs from downtown.
Fort Hays went up 79-77 on a pair of free throws from Bancroft, but Johnson tied it on a backside lob, setting up Fort Hays with the ball with 26 seconds to play. Willhite took her shot, and Mason followed with the game-winner as time expired.
"The ending was fitting," Plett said. "All game long we did a horrendous job of keeping Fort Hays off the offensive boards. Ironically, that's the way they won the ball game with the shortest player on the floor getting the offensive rebound, and putting it back for the game winner."
Now tied with Fort Hays and Pittsburgh State, Missouri Western hosts Truman State on Wednesday. Fort Hays plays host to Southwest Baptist in a 5:30 p.m. start Wednesday at GMC.
Assistant sports editor Nick McQueen can be reached at (785) 628-1081, Ext. 128 or by e-mail at nmcqueen@dailynews.net.
| Scoreboard | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Sport | Date | Opponent | Score |
| BB | 5/04 | Pittsburg State | W 17-5 |
| BB | 5/04 | Pittsburg State | L 4-3 |
| BB | 5/03 | Pittsburg State | L 15-7 |
| BB | 5/03 | Pittsburg State | L 5-4 |
| SB | 5/02 | Central Missouri | L 3-1 |
| SB | 5/02 | Missouri Western | W 3-2 |
| SB | 5/01 | Pittsburg State | W 6-0 |
| SB | 5/01 | Emporia State | L 11-0 |
| BB | 4/30 | Kansas Wesleyan | W 14-1 |
| BB | 4/30 | Kansas Wesleyan | W 12-2 |
