KANSAS CITY, Mo. – Aaron Nicholson broke out of his shooting slump hitting four 3-pointers and scored 18 points but it wasn’t enough as Fort Hays State could not overcome a five-plus minute scoring drought and lost 74-69 to Lincoln in the quarterfinals of the MIAA Tournament at Municipal Auditorium.
The Tigers, who had won four of their last five to close out the regular season finish 18-11. The Blue Tigers (18-11) advance to the conference semifinals for the first time in their programs history where they will play unbeaten Northwest Missouri State Saturday afternoon.
FHSU Postgame Press Conference
Game Highlights
After both teams combined to start the game 5-for-25 from the floor, Lincoln hit seven straight shots and built a six-point lead with 7:10 to go in the first half.
The Tigers answered with a 13-3 run to go up 33-29 on a conventional three-point play from Marcus Cooper with 3:51 to play in the half. FHSU would miss their final five shots and three free throws and trailed 39-33 at the break.
The Blue Tigers scored the first five points of the second half and led 44-33 with 19:04 to play.
Trey O’Neil hit a three followed by a layup and helped the Tigers pull within three with 13:1`6 to play.
Down eight FHSU mounted a 9-2 run keyed by an Aaron Nicholson layup and 3-pointer. A Kyler Kinnamon layup pulled the Tigers within one at 59-58 with 7:38 to play.
Lincoln quickly built the lead back to six on two occassions, the last at 67-61 with 4:24 left.
FHSU scored five straight and pulled within one on two Marcus Cooper free throws with 3:20 to play. The Tigers then got three straight stops but missed to shots near the basket and three-pointer and could never get the lead.
Lincoln’s Terrance Smith, who averaged 16.5 points per game, hit a 3-pointer with 22 seconds to push the lead to four. The Tigers then missed a three and layup in the closing seconds before Aaron Nicholson’s three with seven seconds left.
Nicholson led the Tigers with 18 points on 4-of-5 three-point shooting. Kyler Kinnamon added 12 along with five assists. Trey O’Neil was 3-for-7 from beyond the arc and scored 11 with Marcus Cooper adding 10.
Brady Werth was held to 3-of-11 shooting and scored eight but pulled down a game-high 10 rebounds.
The Tigers shot 40-percent for the game and were 11-of-27 from beyond the arc and were hurt by poor free throw shooting, hitting only 10-of-18 from the line.
Lincoln finished at 50-percent from the floor and went 12-of-27 from beyond the arc and hit 12 of 15 free throws. They were led by Grant Olsson who scored 23 including 5-for-5 from beyond the arc, all in the first half.