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Fort Hays women blown out on road
1/31/2010
By CONOR NICHOLL
cnicholl@dailynews.net
MARYVILLE, Mo. -- Saturday marked, statistically, the second-worst shooting game for the Fort Hays State University women's basketball team in the two-year Tony Hobson era. The contest also yielded a career game and one of the top performances in Northwest Missouri State University history from junior center Gentry Dietz.
The polar opposites produced a 75-54 Tiger road loss to Northwest Missouri on Saturday at Bearcat Arena. FHSU shot just 27.8 percent from the field (17-of-61), including 5-of-16 (31.3) from beyond the arc. Fort Hays had its second-lowest offensive output, worst against a squad not ranked in the top 25. The Tigers trailed by double figures all second half.
"It was just a whoopin' all the way around," Hobson said. "That's what it was. They were just a lot more excited to play basketball today than we were."
The only time Fort Hays has shot worse in the last two seasons was a 73-46 loss to nationally ranked Washburn University in the first round of the Mid-America Intercollegiate Athletics Association tournament last March. FHSU made just 24.1 percent of its field goals.
"When we executed correctly, it seemed like we would get a good shot and then we would miss it," Hobson said. "I don't know how many little chippies in there we missed. It was a physical game on both ends and they were letting it play and it seemed like it was bothering us a lot more than them."
Dietz, a 6-foot-2 junior center and NCAA Division I transfer from Southern Illinois, delivered 37 points and 16 rebounds, both career-highs.
The 37 points is the most in the MIAA this season and tied for the third-highest total in Northwest history. Dietz finished 15-of-23 from the field and 7-of-8 from the free throw line. She collected nine offensive rebounds and helped Northwest collect 21 second chance points, 13 more than FHSU.
"We were just guarding her man-to-man," Hobson said. "We let it go in there too easy. The man thing was she got how many second chance opportunities, offensive rebound putbacks? She had to have five or six. You just can't allow her to do that. If you can't keep her from getting the ball six feet from the basket then she is going to get a good shot off and if you won't block her off, she is going to get a lot of rebounds."
Fort Hays, ranked seventh in the first South Central regional poll, dropped to 14-5 overall, 7-5 in the MIAA, while Northwest Missouri improved to 11-9, 7-6 in the conference.
In December, Dietz, who averages 15 points and eight rebounds a game, scored 28 points against FHSU in Hays for her career-high. Since then, Dietz has suffered through a roller-coaster two months. In early January, Dietz's grandmother passed away.
"Her grandmother means a lot to her," Steinmeyer said. "She spent all summer at the Mayo clinic with her grandmother."
Dietz missed a game against Truman State (Mo.) University and then averaged 9.5 points and shot 34 percent from the field in her next five contests. Steinmeyer, though, said Dietz had recovered from her grandmother's passing. In the first half, Dietz was 7-of-10 from the field for 19 points as Northwest led 35-25 at intermission. Fort Hays played man-to-man defense on Dietz with senior forward Erica Biel and junior forward Kara Champlin.
"She just had a good day and Erica didn't play her very well and Champ didn't play her very well," Hobson said. "We just didn't have an answer for her today."
In the first eight and a half minutes of the second half, Northwest Missouri enjoyed an 19-9 run that put the game out of reach. FHSU, led by 11 points from senior guard Naomi Bancroft, was 6-of-31 shooting in the first half. Little improved after intermission.
"Biel missed some shots that she is never going to miss inside," Steinmeyer said. "They had some point blank shots that just went over the rim. Unexplainable for those guys."
"I would say we missed three or four little bunnies that we should have made and then second half we missed three or four more," Hobson said.
"You cannot give away 14 or 16 easy points like that and expect to stay in the game."
In addition, Fort Hays had 19 turnovers and was outrebounded 54-35 en route to its third straight road loss. The Tigers will travel to Missouri Western State University for a 5:30 p.m. tipoff on Monday.
"I don't think we had a good player today," Hobson said. "I don't think anybody had better than an average game today. There is no way."
| 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 |