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Tigers snap two-game skid
Published on -2/7/2010, 3:49 PM
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TOPEKA — Head coach Mark Johnson and the coaching staff reviewed the Fort Hays State University men's basketball team's schedule on the trip down to Washburn University on Saturday. The game concluded a 10-game stretch that started in early January and featured seven road games that stretched throughout Nebraska, Kansas and northeast Missouri.
The trip yielded the Tigers' first two NCAA Division II losses last weekend in a road swing through Northwest Missouri State University and Missouri Western State University.
"Being at Fort Hays State, not to make excuses for ourselves, but we have to be in buses a lot longer than everybody else," Johnson said. "We have to spend nights in hotel rooms a lot more than everybody else. I am not so sure that stretch didn't mentally just wear us down. I thought our guys came out really focused tonight trying to find a way to win this game and respond from what we just went through this last week."
The Tigers bounced back and ended the five-week journey throughout the conference with a 74-62 victory over Washburn at Lee Arena. Fort Hays finished the trek with an 8-2 mark, a record that kept them in the top-10 in Division II and gave them an opportunity to still win a Mid-America Intercollegiate Athletics Association title and host the South Central Regional.
"Our guys were committed to finding a way to win this game," Johnson said. "They wanted to be in the hunt. Now with six games to go, we are still in the hunt."
Fort Hays, ranked eighth in Division II, never trailed in the contest, led by at least 11 points all second half and improved to 18-3 overall and 12-2 in the conference.
Washburn dropped to 12-10, 6-9 MIAA. Helped by the strong bounce-back effort, the Tigers are one game back of University of Central Missouri for the conference lead.
"Here's the problem: you start off 11-0 and you lose two in a row, everyone whether it be players or coaches, fans, people around the program, they think the sky is falling," Johnson said. "They have to realize that if someone would have said, 'You are going to start the conference season 11-2, you would probably say, 'okay, we'll take it. I'll pay you a hundred dollars and take it.
"There wasn't any lack of confidence, our guys needed to come out here and our mindset was going to be, we were going to win this game no matter what, if it was going to be 75-70, if it was going to be 52-50, if it had to be 42-40. We were going to win this game and I thought our guys had that mentality," he added.
After the losses ended the Tigers' 13-game winning streak, FHSU took two days off from basketball. On Thursday, the team returned to practice.
"As much physical wear and tear and traveling of the season since Jan. 1, I think we just needed to get away and do some soul searching and not hit the panic button by any means, but just decide do we want to make this a conference race or not," Johnson said.
The Tigers responded with an effort reminiscent of the first half of MIAA play, a stretch where Fort Hays posted eight victories by double figures. The Tigers, one of the country's top shooting teams, shot 52 percent from the field and 50 percent from beyond the arc, the best shooting percentages since before the losing skid. Four players scored in double figures, including a game-high 17 from senior guard Willie Hassell and 15 from junior forward Dijon Smith. The improving Smith saw his first start of the year.
"We were struggling, we were in a little bit of a slump, so we got to get back at it," Smith said. "We got to work hard in practice. We got to come back from our slump."
Defensively, FHSU allowed Northwest Missouri and Missouri Western to shoot 42 and 50 percent from the field, respectively, in the losses. On Saturday, the Tigers limited Washburn to 40 percent shooting, including 2-of-19 from 3-point range.
In addition, Washburn junior forward De'Andre Washington, averaging 18 points a contest, finished with nine. Sophomore guard William McNeil led the Ichabods with 15 points. The Tigers return home Thursday against Truman State (Mo.) University. They'll finish the season with four home games in the final six regular season contests.
"I thought tonight we gave a great effort," Johnson said.
