Women's Basketball 03.02.16

Women's Basketball Heads to KC for MIAA Post-Season Tournament

Women's Basketball 03.02.16

Women's Basketball Heads to KC for MIAA Post-Season Tournament

Kansas City, Mo. - The Missouri Southern Lions Women's Basketball team heads to Kansas City to take on the third seeded Fort Hays State at noon on Thursday at Municpial Auditorium. There will be a send off at 10:45 a.m. for the team in the lobby of the main Marriott Downtown tower on Thursday morning.

The Lions (18-11) Last Time Out
Joplin, Mo. -- The Missouri Southern women's basketball team shot 70 percent from the field in the first half and 75 percent from long-range and the Lions got out to a 21-point halftime lead en route to a 73-55 win over Northeastern State in the MIAA Tournament first-round game tonight.
Southern (18-11) was led offensively by Kayla Kivinski with 15 points on 4-8 from the field and 3-4 from long-range. She made all four of her free-throws. Deb Holcomb scored 13 points, while Dru Clark had 12 and Jenson Maydew scored 11.
Northeastern State (8-21) had three score in double-figures led by 13 points from Caley Shaffstall.
NSU led by three (8-5) after a layup from Cailyn Long with 6:26 left in the 1st, but seven-straight points from the Lions put Southern up 12-8 after a three from Holcomb with 3:51 to go in the quarter. A three from Clark made the score 20-12 with 35 seconds left, but NSU answered back with a three and the score was 20-15 after one.
The Lions scored seven-straight points to open the second quarter and led 27-15 with 8:17 left on the clock. The lead reached 16 (36-20) after a layup from Kivinski, and a three from Clark with 2:19 to go made the score 41-22. Southern led 47-26 at the halftime break.
Southern led by as many as 23 in the third quarter, the last coming after a free throw from Clark made the score 54-31 with 2:42 left and the lead was as many as 26 in the fourth after a pair of free throws from Kivinski made the score 72-46 with 4:50 left.
The Lions shot 52 percent from the field and 50 percent from long range as the team made 11 three-pointers. Southern went 10-12 from the free throw line and the Lions' bench out scored NSU 36-15.

The Tigers (24-4) Last Time Out
EDMOND, Okla. – Fort Hays State fell in its regular season finale on Saturday (Feb. 27) at Central Oklahoma by a score of 81-73. The No. 9 ranked Tigers finished the regular season at 24-4 overall and 18-4 in the MIAA, tying for second in the conference standings with Pittsburg State.
Central Oklahoma nearly led for the entire game as FHSU held a 3-2 lead early. The Bronchos took the lead for good going on a 14-2 run to take a 16-5 lead. FHSU sliced the lead down to one twice in the second quarter, but UCO pulled away at the end to lead by eight at halftime, 36-28.
The Bronchos scored the first six points of the second half to extend their lead to 14 and it reached 19 with 2:07 to go in the third quarter. FHSU ended the third quarter on an 11-2 run to cut the lead back to 10. The Tigers extended that run to 17-2 by scoring the first six points of the fourth quarter, trimming the UCO lead to four with 8:17 to go in the game. The Tigers cut the margin to four three more times, but could never get over the hump.
Paige Lunsford scored a team-high 16 points, followed by Nikola Kacperska with 14 points and Beth Bohuslavsky with 13.Jill Faxon led the Tigers in rebounding with six.
Central Oklahoma shot the ball too well, hitting 54.8 percent from the field and 53.3 percent from beyond the 3-point line. The Tigers struggled shooting the ball, just 36.8 percent from the field and 24.1 percent beyond the 3-point line.
McKenzie Solberg led UCO with 22 points, while Julia Mason followed with 16. Haley Weathers had 12 and Jordan Ward added 11.

The Series
Fort Hays State holds a 27-17 advantage over the Lions in the series history. The Tigers have won four straight over Southern including a 68-62 win in Joplin on Feb. 13 of this season. Fort Hays State holds the advantage in Hays, Kan. over the
Lions at 18-4, with the Lions last win in Hays coming on Feb. 19, 2011 (62-53). Missouri Southern holds a 13-8 advantage over the Tigers in Joplin. FHSU has a 1-0 advantage on neutral sites as the 2014 MIAA Post-Season Tournament is the only time the two teams have met on a neutral court. The longest winning streak for FHSU is four, which was done twice in the 80s, (Jan. 18, 1980 - Feb. 20, 1982 and Feb. 6, 1987 - Jan. 20, 1989) and is the current winning streak for the Tigers. Southern's longest winning streak is three (Feb. 20, 2010 - Feb. 19, 2011).

The Coaches
Missouri Southern
Ronda Hubbard is in her 15th year on the staff at Missouri Southern and her third year at the helm. During her 15 years with the Lions, she has helped the team to a 246-168 record, including a 56-25 record in her first two plus seasons at the helm of the Lions program. Last season's 20 wins was the first time the women's team had won 20 games since the 1995-96 season.

Fort Hays State
Tony Hobson enters his eighth season as head coach of the Fort Hays State women's basketball program in 2015-16. Hobson is one of the most successful collegiate women's basketball coaches in the nation, entering his 24th year overall with a career record of 545-177 (.755). He ranks in the top 10 in win percentage among active coaches in NCAA Division II with a four-year college win percentage of .756 (343-111). In seven years at Fort Hays State, Hobson has a record of 132-71.

Last Time vs. Fort Hays State
Joplin, Mo. - The Missouri Southern Lions rally in the second half came just short as fifth ranked Fort Hays State squeaked by with a 68-62 win Saturday afternoon inside The Leggett & Platt Athletic Center.
The Lions (16-9, 10-9 MIAA) jumped out first in a first quarter that saw five of the six ties in the game, when junior Deb Holcomb scored on a jumper in the paint on the opening possession. Tie number one came on the first Fort Hays State (21-3, 15-3 MIAA) possession with a layup from Jill Faxon. Tie number two came just a minute later when FHSU's Chelsea Mason drove to the bucked following a Lions' layup from freshman Desirea Buerge. The Tigers took the lead on a bucket from Beth Bohuslavsky but Southern regained the lead at 7-6 on the next possession with a three pointer from sophomore Jenson Maydew. A pair of free throws from Fort Hays' Paige Lunsford tied and then gave the Tigers the lead at 8-7. From there the two teams traded buckets until back-to-back lay-ups from Southern's Maydew and sophomore Dru Clark made it 13-10 Lions. A lay-up from FHSU's Taylor Chandler and free throw from Bohuslavsky tied it back at 13-13 before Southern would have a little 5-0 run on a three point play from senior Sharese Jones and a lay-up from Holcomb. Fort Hays State ended the first quarter on a 9-0 run to take a 22-18 lead into the quarter break.
Coming out in the second quarter the Tigers pushed their lead up to nine at 27-18 before a three pointer from Clark cut it to six at 27-21 with just under seven minutes to play. A 4-0 run pushed the FHSU lead up to 10, 31-21, before a pair of free throws from Clark and a lay-up from Fort Hays State's Mason made it 33-23 with four minutes left in the half. Buerge answered with a three off the assist from Clark but the Tigers' Faxon answered right back with a three of her own to make it 36-26. Southern closed the half on a 6-2 run with a pair of free throws from Clark and Holcomb and a lay-up from sophomore Kayla Kivinski.
For the half the Lions shot 40.7 percent (11-for-27) from the field, going 3-for-9 from three point range, and were a perfect 7-for-7 at the free throw line. Clark led the Lions with nine points off the bench while Holcomb added eight and both Maydew and Buerge chipping in five each. FHSU shot 48.1 percent (13-for-27) from the field with a 3-of-6 performance from downtown and they were 9-of-10 from the charity stripe. Mason led the Tigers with 10 points and Bohuslavsky added seven.
A quick 4-0 run by Fort Hays State opened the third period before the Lions would start to claw back. A lay-up from senior Kenya Wilson-Brown sparked an 12-2 run to pull Southern even at 44 all following a pair of free throws by Wilson-Brown with 5:46 left in the quarter. That would be the closest the Lions got in the third as FHSU answered with an 8-0 run to go up 52-44 with just over a minute left in the third. Holcomb scored on the next Southern possession and following a turnover by the Tigers' Mason, Kivinski's three at the buzzer just missed to the right of the iron.
The fourth quarter started with an offensive foul called on Holcomb which the Tigers turned into a lay-up by Taylor Chandler to go back up by eight points, 54-46. Holcomb answered right back with a jumper inside the lane and a pair of free throws from Jones made it 54-50 with just over eight minutes left in the game. Chandler got fouled going to the hoop over 90 seconds later and hit just one of two freebies to give the Lions an opening. Jones immediately came down and hit a three to pull the Lions within two at 55-53 with 6:21 to play. Another trip to the free throw line for FHSU garnered just 1-for-2 this time from Bohuslavsky and a pair of freebies from Nikola Kacperska made it 58-53 with 5:45 to play. A three pointer from Maydew off the assist from Clark cut it down to two before FHSU's Mason answered right back as the teams headed into the final media time out with FHSU leading 60-56. Coming out of the media Holcomb drove to the bucket for a little 10 foot jump shot to make it 60-58 and that was the closest the Lions would get as Fort Hays finished the game on a 8-4 run for the 68-62 win.
Southern finished the game shooting 21-for-57 (36.8 percent) from the field and was a perfect 13-for-13 from the free throw line. Fort Hays State went 23-for-50 (46 percent) from the field and 19-for-24 from the free throw line. The Lions were led by Holcomb with 19, and Clark with 14. Both Holcomb & Clark also led Southern in rebounding with seven and six, respectively. The Tigers were led by Mason with 16 and Kacperska with 15.

Projected Starters
#12 Fort Hays State (24-4)
    3    Taylor Chandler   G   5-5   R-Jr. (Wichita, Kan.)
    5    Beth Bohuslavsky   G   5-6   Sr. (Dwight, Neb.)
11   Chelsea Mason   G   5-9   Sr. (Bellevue, Neb.)
   32   Jill Faxon   G   5-10   Jr. (Beatrice, Neb.)
   35 Paige Lunsford   G   5-11   Sr. (Hays, Kan.)

Missouri Southern (18-11)
1   Dru Clark   G   5-7   So. (Collinsville, Okla.)
   11   Kenya Wilson-Brown   G   5-5   Sr. (Arlington, Texas)
   24   Deb Holcomb   G   5-7   Jr. (Dallas, Texas)
   30   Bri Shavers F 6-0 So. (Carrollton, Texas)
   44   Sharese Jones   G   5-8   Sr. (St. Charles, Mo.)

Print Friendly Version