By C.J. MOORE

Special to The Hays Daily News

KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- Fort Hays State University women's basketball coach Tony Hobson sat at a podium Thursday night after his team's 72-66 season-ending loss to Emporia State University at the Mid-America Intercollegiate Athletics Association Championships and reflected on his team's eight-game losing streak.

If Hobson's Tigers had played like they had against the 15th-ranked Hornets when they were in the midst of their losing streak, they wouldn't have had to play one of the MIAA's best on Thursday night. Given that hand, the Tigers still nearly pulled off a huge upset, leading by as many as 14 twice in the first half and nearly pulling off a comeback in the final minutes.

"I like the way we got off to a good start," Hobson said. "We maintained our intensity the whole 40 minutes and I really liked that. We got a grade-A effort from our kids. We just made a few too many errors down the stretch."

It was Emporia State that made the errors in the first half. Fort Hays forced 14 turnovers before halftime and also held ESU to 32.1 percent shooting and led 32-23 at half.

"Our intensity was really high, and I think we kind of caught them off guard," senior guard Naomi Bancroft said. "We got some good steals and pushed the ball. It turned into more of a halfcourt game the second half and we didn't push it as much."

In order to shut down the Hornets, you must shut down their guards, most notably MIAA player of the year Cassondra Boston. Boston had just five points on a 2-of-8 shooting in the first half.

"I thought the first half Hays was really good and I really felt like the difference between the two halves was Hays' seniors played like they wanted to play another game, and they out-competed our seniors," ESU coach Brandon Schneider said.

Schneider challenged his seniors at halftime, and senior guard Jamie Augustyn and Boston changed the game in the second half.

Augustyn made three 3-pointers during a 17-2 run that put ESU ahead. Her 3 on a kickout put ESU ahead for the first time 51-49 with 7:31 left in the game.

ESU would continue its run and push the lead to 55-49, and Fort Hays looked finished, but Fort Hays' seniors had one last push left in them.

Kayla Klug hit a layup, Erica Biel made a turnaround in the lane and Audra Binford followed with one of two free throws to put Fort Hays back in the lead, 57-56.

Two Brittney Miller free throws and an Alli Volkens jump hook would stretch the lead to six, and although it looked like the Tigers were finished, they were able to claw back into the lead with an 8-1 run that put them ahead 57-56.

After ESU took back the lead on two Lacy Corker free throws, Fort Hays answered again with two free frows by Kimber Weiser and another two from Biel to go ahead 61-58 with 2:55 left.

"At that time I thought we were going to get them," Hobson said. "We made our free throws when we did get to the line. We lost three close ones this year because we missed free throws, and we hit those."

Corker cut the lead back to two with two more free throws, and Boston scored to take back the lead 62-61. After Biel made two more free throws, Boston put the Hornets ahead for good with a driving layup that started a 10-0 run that iced the game, a run in which she made six straight free throws. Boston finished with 23 points and made 11 of 12 free throws.

ESU made 16-of-20 free throws after shooting just seven from the line in the first half.

"I'm not criticizing anybody, but I thought the game was called different both halves," Hobson said. "There was seven total free throws shot the first half; there were 32 in the second half, and that's where we lost the game. They got to the line, and granted, they drive it hard. I'm not saying they weren't fouled, it was just called a little tighter.

"I think we got a little tired the second half and couldn't guard their dribble-drive like we did. It was just a combination of things," he added.

Biel finished with 18 points on 7-of-9 shooting. Bancroft scored 16 points, and Binford added 10. The Tigers finished a once-promising season 15-13 after starting 15-5.

"The last three games we've played well," Hobson said. "We played Emporia State tough, tougher than hell two games in a row, and we played Pitt State and had them beat. If we would have had that effort in the prior six or seven games, we wouldn't have lost three of those like we did. We would have won those by 10 points, and we would have had a better draw for the tournament."