Hornets take Tigers to the wire
Thursday, January 19, 2012
The ingredients for an upset were there. The Emporia State men’s basketball team found a way to hang around at the start, withstood a Fort Hays State run and kept the score close at the half.
The Hornets followed that protocol in the second half and it worked. The Hornets even forced overtime before falling to the No. 25 Tigers 72-67 Wednesday at White Auditorium.
“At the end of the day they came out with a win because we didn’t capitalize on their mistakes and they capitalized on ours,” ESU coach Shaun Vandiver said. “Right now we just have to figure out a way to win a game. And right now we just have to bounce back and get after it and ready to play on Sunday.”
FHSU (12-4, 6-4 MIAA) led 46-35 with 14:26 to go, but ESU (8-8, 4-6 MIAA) rallied back with an 11-3 run on a stickback by Tola Lawal, four points from Chris Sights and five points from Travis Dykman.
“We’re a grind it out team,” said Sights, who had 15 points and six assists. “Once we get down we don’t hang our heads at all because we’ve been there all season long. We never hang our heads. We just tell each other to stay together and good things will happen.
The Tigers bounced back and pushed its lead back to seven with 5:40 to go and were in position to close out the game until the Hornets fought back. A Christian Simmons 3-pointer pulled ESU within four with 4 minutes to go. The Hornet defense then stiffened and held the Tigers to just three points the rest of regulation.
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