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Nine in a row for No. 10 Tigers
1/10/2010
By RANDY GONZALES
rgonzales@dailynews.net
The top offensive team and the top defensive team in the conference met in a Saturday showdown at Gross Memorial Coliseum.
The Fort Hays State University men's basketball team, ranked 10th in the nation, turned it up a notch defensively in the second half to take a 102-89 Mid-America Intercollegiate Athletics Association win over 11th-ranked Southwest Baptist (Mo.) University.
The first half was played the way ranked Southwest Baptist liked it -- uptempo. Fort Hays was leading 44-40 at halftime, but there were too many points on the scoreboard to suit Tiger coach Mark Johnson.
"Last five minutes of the first half, we tried to outscore them," Johnson said. "I thought second half, our team was an example of who we are."
"We were playing their style in the first half, gave up 40 points in the first half -- that's not Fort Hays State basketball," Tiger junior guard Corbin Kuntzsch said.
To start the second half, the Tigers put the clamps on defensively while making a pivotal big run. Fort Hays went on a 13-2 streak to take a 57-42 lead when Southwest Baptist coach Jeff Guiot had seen enough, drawing a pair of technical fouls and an ejection.
Kuntzsch -- who scored a career-high 33 points -- swished all four technical free throws to give Fort Hays a 61-42 lead with 15:21 left in the game. Kuntzsch drained back-to-back 3-pointers, then hit a layup for eight straight points in the run to start the second half.
"It felt good tonight," Kuntzsch said of his hot shooting.
Kuntzsch connected on all five 3-pointers he attempted, swished 12-of-14 from the line and did everything but sell popcorn in his big night.
"He hit some big threes in the second half," Johnson said. "Corbin played well. Corbin is the glue to our team in so many ways."
While Kuntzsch was scoring outside, 6-foot-8 junior forward Dijon Smith gave the Tigers a lift off the bench inside. Smith battled Southwest Baptist's star big man, 6-11 senior Matt Rogers, scoring 20 points on 7-of-9 shooting, and grabbed seven rebounds and blocked three shots in 24 minutes. Smith also was the beneficiary of an easy layup in the second half when junior guard Dominique Jones drove the lane, drew the defenders and delivered a behind-the-back pass for the score.
"I thought at times he took it at Matt Rogers," Johnson said of Smith. "He wasn't intimidated."
Rogers finished with 30 points on 12-of-20 shooting. Of his 12 baskets, seven were fadeaway jumpers on the block.
A basket by senior guard Willie Hassell with 6:35 left in the game gave Fort Hays (13-1 overall, 7-0 MIAA) an 84-59 lead. But that would be the Tigers' last basket.
The Tigers didn't attack the basket at that point, settling for free throws. Fort Hays made 18-of-32 from the line after Hassell's bucket, and made 33-of-52 foul shots for the game. After senior Orrin Greer missed four straight at the line with just over a minute left, Johnson was forced to bring in senior forward Tim Peintner (an 81 percent foul shooter), who had missed the last two games with a sprained ankle.
"Tim is a good free-throw shooter," Johnson said of bringing Peintner into the game with 1:03 left.
Southwest Baptist (14-3, 5-2) got as close as nine points at 96-87 with 55 seconds left, but it was too much of a deficit to make up.
"I take a lot of responsibility for that," Johnson said of the Tigers' deliberate offense late in the game. "We haven't worked a lot on that.
"We lost our aggressiveness," he added.
The Tigers hit the century mark on a free throw by sophomore Ben Congiusta with 23 seconds left in the game, much to the delight of the 3,741 fans in attendance. The 102 points are the most a Tiger team has scored in a conference game since joining the MIAA.
Fort Hays shot 58 percent from the floor for the game and was 53 percent from beyond the arc. Southwest Baptist shot 42 percent overall and 30 percent from 3-point land.
Hassell added 16 points and Jones scored 14 for Fort Hays, while Southwest Baptist got 21 points from junior guard Tomas Brock and 17 from sophomore guard Ryan Dougherty.
Coming off a win at top-ranked University of Central Missouri on Monday, the Tigers have now beaten two of the top teams in the nation and have won nine straight entering Monday's 7:30 p.m. home game against Missouri Southern.
| Scoreboard | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Sport | Date | Opponent | Score |
| BB | 03/17 | Missouri S&T | W 2-1 (10) |
| SB | 03/17 | Bethany | W 6-1 |
| SB | 03/17 | Bethany | W 8-1 |
| BB | 03/16 | Misosuri S&T | L 13-4 |
| MB | 03/14 | Central Missouri | L 80-73 |
| BB | 3/13 | NW Missouri | W 13-10 |
| BB | 03/13 | NW Missouri | W 4-3 |
| MB | 03/13 | Central Oklahoma | W 80-64 |
| SB | 03/08 | Fort Lewis | W 5-4 |
| BB | 03/07 | No. 9 Emporia State | L 13-7 |
| BB | 03/06 | No. 9 Emporia State | L 16-4 |
| BB | 03/06 | No. 9 Emporia State | W 3-0 |
| MB | 03/05 | Emporia State | L 65-61 |
| BB | 03/05 | No. 9 Emporia State | L 10-3 |
| WB | 03/04 | No. 15 Emporia | L 72-66 |
| WB | 02/28 | No. 12 Emporia State | L 87-80 |
| MB | 02/28 | Emporia State | W 94-47 |
| SB | 02/28 | Quincy | L 6-0 |
| SB | 02/27 | Mo Southern | W 9-3 |
| SB | 02/27 | Missouri S&T | L 8-3 |