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FHSU men pull away in second half
2/19/2010
By CONOR NICHOLL
cnicholl@dailynews.net
BOLIVAR, Mo. -- The stat line for Tiger junior Dominique Jones in Saturday's game against No. 3 University of Central Missouri read: 1-of-11 shooting, four points. It marked Jones' season lows for field goal percentage and points as the Fort Hays State University men's basketball team suffered its worst loss of the season.
"Personally, it was the worst game I have played since I don't know when," Jones said. "That's something that I had to bounce back so we can be a team again, be a playoff contender. We are trying to win. We are trying to get as far as we can go. That is something that we always preach."
Five days later, Jones and the Tigers recovered with a solid performance in an 87-71 victory against Southwest Baptist (Mo.) University. FHSU, ranked No. 3 in the South Central Regional and tied for 12th in NCAA Division II, shot 62.7 percent from the field, its best mark in Mid-America Intercollegiate Athletics Association this season. That included 83.3 shooting (20-of-24) in the second half.
"I told the team afterwards, that's the Fort Hays team we saw all year long until the last week or two," Tiger coach Mark Johnson said. "I don't know if we've been timid. Also, I will say this, when you make shots, it makes you look pretty good. In the second half, we made shots. Really, sometimes it's not as complicated as what we make it out to be. We started making shots."
Fort Hays had strong efforts from multiple players, including junior guard Corbin Kuntzsch, who scored 22 points and grabbed eight rebounds, both team-highs. The crafty and quick Jones bounced back with 15 points on 7-of-11 shooting and a game-high six assists, including several highlight reel passes that yielded dunks from junior forward Ken Bowman. On one play, Jones grabbed a defensive rebound, turned and threw a long pass to senior guard Orrin Greer, who converted the pass into a layup.
"It's just something that coach always wants us to do," Jones said. "He wants us to run the floor. They are a running team, so coach said just make sure we run it back at them. We just got back into our lanes and just ran."
Greer tied his career high with 13 points, including 6-of-6 from the free-throw line, and had his first double-figure contest since Jan. 2. Bowman, plagued by foul trouble in recent contests, started for the first time in four games and scored 19 points, his biggest output since December.
"Orrin Greer played really good tonight," Johnson said. "We needed him to step up and he did. He was big. I thought Ken was really good in the second half."
The Tigers moved to 20-4 overall and 14-3 in the MIAA, the fifth time in Johnson's nine seasons and the second straight year FHSU has accumulated at least 20 wins. FHSU locked up at least the No. 2 seed in the conference tournament and could still catch Central Missouri for the conference title. Central Missouri has a two-game lead with three games left. No FHSU team in any sport has finished first or second since the Tigers switched to the MIAA four years ago.
Fort Hays won at SBU for the first time in three seasons. The last two visits were 84-64 and 86-53 losses.
"There was no way we could lose this game and be taken seriously going into the playoffs," Jones said. "It's very big. Coach, he made sure that he instilled that in us. We always got beat here badly. We've just got to have some pride and get the win."
Fort Hays shot better than 50 percent for the second time in eight games. FHSU has shot over 50 percent in 11 contests this year after last season's 20-9 squad shot 50 percent or better six times. The Tigers are 16-0 against Division II squads when they shoot over 47 percent.
"When those shots aren't falling, we don't have a lot of other things," Johnson said. "We are not real physical. We don't offensive rebound good enough. We've got to make shots. We've got to kind of be on that fine line for us when we are successful. At times, we can get too crazy and too wild, but at times we can get too stale and just passive and tonight I thought second half we found that line again, which we have basically been doing all year. Kind of on that border of chaos, but still under control and making the right decisions."
Southwest Baptist (19-8 overall, 10-7 MIAA), played without 6-foot-11 senior center Matt Rogers, a two-time All-American who will miss the rest of the season with a knee injury. Rogers was averaging 21.8 points, 8.8 rebounds and 3.6 blocked shots per game before getting hurt six games ago.
"When those kinds of injuries happen, they really derail you," Johnson said.
The Bearcats, an uptempo team, were paced by junior guard Tomas Brock (21 points) and led 33-30 at the half before Fort Hays tied the game at 44 early in the second half. Jones, the Tigers' 5-8 sparkplug, gave Fort Hays the lead when he hit a bank shot. Then, he delivered his long pass to Greer for a layup.
FHSU, pushing the pace, eventually went on a 33-18 run to put the game out of reach. In the stretch, Jones fed Bowman for a dunk and scored off a layup after a steal.
"We were in attack mode," Johnson said. "I think that was the big difference. We were attacking and Dom was making plays. He was really big for us in that stretch. Ken, Dom, Orrin and Corbin really carried us in that second half."
Fort Hays will have its final road game of the regular season Saturday at Missouri Southern State University (15-9, 9-8). Tipoff is 3 p.m. in Joplin, Mo.
| Scoreboard | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Sport | Date | Opponent | Score |
| 2/18 | SW Baptist | L 66-53 | |
| 12/1 | Oklahoma - Panhandle | L 66-60 (OT) | |