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Tiger women lose on road

2/24/2008

By JACK NICHOLL

Special to The Hays Daily News

KIRKSVILLE, Mo. -- The Fort Hays State University women's basketball team continued its troubles on the road Saturday at Truman State University.

Fort Hays' road record moved to 0-10 after a 67-61 loss against the Bulldogs. Fort Hays' last road win was last season against Truman State. More importantly, the loss moved Fort Hays out of a three-way tie for seventh place in the Mid-America Intercollegiate Athletics Association standings. Going into the game, the Tigers, Truman State and Missouri Western were tied with five wins each in conference play. Truman State took sole possession of seventh place with the win. With Missouri Southern's 66-49 loss to Central Missouri, Fort Hays is in a tie for the last spot in the conference tournament going into Wednesday's game against first-place Washburn.

"It's a situation where we just need to get home and get some rest and bounce back and close out our season as best we possibly can," Fort Hays coach Annette Wiles said.

The Tigers played a sound first half, with the score knotted at 31 going into the locker room. However, Truman State (14-11, 6-10 MIAA) went on a 19-7 run in the first third of the second half -- a deficit from which Fort Hays could not recover.

"Offensively we really went into a drought," Wiles said. "We were struggling to get scores and then on the defensive end single-handedly it came down to defensive rebounds."

Fort Hays had seven less defensive boards than Truman State. They struggled in other facets, including giving up double digit points to four Truman State players, led by all-conference forward Georgia Mueller's 18.

They gave up 15 turnovers and the shooting woes continued as the Tigers shot only 39.1 percent from the field.

"There were definitely times where we shot ourselves in the foot with the turnovers and then of course we didn't shoot the ball from the field at all, and that was definitely disappointing in itself," Wiles said.

Fort Hays (11-14, 5-11 MIAA) also rarely made it to the foul line throughout the game, shooting six free throws and only one in the first half. In contrast, Truman State went 18-for-25 from the line. Truman State did not make a field goal in the last five minutes of the game, but it was offset as the Bulldogs made as many free throws in the last five minutes as Fort Hays did in the game.

Senior guard Meshia Mason said it could have been because Fort Hays was not as aggressive as it wanted to be. Although they shot 100 percent from the line, the lack of free throws and poor shooting were too much to overcome. Fort Hays never made it into the bonus in either half.

The Tigers played well at times, taking a seven point lead three minutes into the game, which was quickly lost. When Truman State took a 12-point lead in the second half, the Tigers instantly responded with back-to-back 3s by Mason. However, they were never able to make it a one possession game.

Senior forward Brianna Willhite was the leading scorer for the Tigers with 18 points, and guards Sheena Kuntzsch and Naomi Bancroft added 12 each. Mason led the team with four assists and the team was outrebounded 39-32. Fort Hays shot 22.7 percent from beyond the arc to Truman State's 41.7 percent, even though the teams made five treys each.

The Tigers will next visit Washburn on Wednesday in Topeka, and then their final conference game is at home against Northwest Missouri State on March 1.

"We just need to play hard and with a lot of heart, especially at home. Just work hard ... and never take a possession off," Mason said.

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