Tigers Face Lions Thursday Night in MIAA Tournament Quarterfinals

FHSU Sports Information Department

Fort Hays State faces a familiar MIAA Tournament quarterfinal foe on Thursday night (Mar. 2) at Municipal Auditorium in Kansas City. FHSU, the No. 5 seed in the tournament, takes on No. 4 seed Missouri Southern at 8:30 pm.

The Tigers meet the Lions for the fourth time in the MIAA Tournament quarterfinals. That is the most meetings with any school in the quarterfinals. It will be the fifth meeting overall with MSSU in the tournament and FHSU holds a 4-0 record in that series. The Tigers have won all three of the previous quarterfinal meetings with Missouri Southern, and twice it has been as the No. 5 seed over a No. 4 seeded MSSU. In 2007-08, FHSU defeated MSSU 68-59. In 2011-12, FHSU won a thrilling 103-102 overtime meeting. Then just a year later, FHSU as the No. 1 seed knocked out No. 9 seed MSSU 79-60. The only other meeting between the schools occurred in the 2010-11 championship game when No. 2 seed FHSU knocked off No. 1 seed MSSU 89-83 after MSSU won the regular season title.

The Tigers are 6-3 overall in the MIAA Tournament Quarterfinals. The Tigers were in the same seeding matchup last year, but had the No. 4 seed and knocked out No. 5 seed Central Oklahoma 67-61. FHSU has a 10-9 record overall in the MIAA Tournament after Monday’s opening round win over Northeastern State.

Hadley Gillum has been on a tear of late, scoring at least 20 points in the last four games. He is now averaging 13.7 points per game to rank 13th in the MIAA, and 6.5 rebounds per game to rank eighth in the MIAA. Rob Davis continues to lead the team in scoring at 21.5 points per game, reaching at least 20 in a game 16 times this year. JaQuan Smith is adding 7.9 points and 6.6 rebounds per game. All three earned All-MIAA honors.

All-MIAA Second Team selection CJ Carr leads the Lions in scoring at 19.2 points per game, while also dishing out a conference-best 5.6 assists per game. MIAA Freshman of the Year Elyjah Clark and JJ Cratit also average at least 14 points per game.

Missouri Southern won the only meeting with FHSU in the regular season, 84-81 back on December 1 in Joplin.

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