Men's Basketball | 1/29/2013 11:44:00 PM
NEW MIAA, OLD CSIC
Emporia State will take on Nebraska-Kearney for the first time in over 20 years. The last time the Hornets and Lopers met in Kearney the teams played at Cushing Coliseum as members of the CSIC.
THE COACHES
Shaun Vandiver is 17-26 in his second season at Emporia State. A first round draft pick by the Golden State Warriors in 1991 spent ten years as an assistant coach at the NCAA Division I level. As a player he led Hutchinson CC to the 1988 NJCAA National Championship before earning first-team All-Big 8 honors at Colorado. This is his first meeting with Neb.-Kearney.
UNK employs a unique co-head coach system. Tom Kropp is 447-216 in his 17th year at Neb.-Kearney while Kevin Lofton is 121-96 in his eighth year. This will be their first meeting with Emporia State.
LAST TIME OUT
Emporia State had a nine point lead with 11:16 left but was outscored 31-16 the remainder of the game as they fell 77-71 to Central Oklahoma. Chris Sights scored 16 points to lead Emporia State and was joined in double figures by Paul Bunch with 14, Tre Boutilier with 11 and Taylor Euler with ten points. Bunch added a team high eight rebounds and five blocked shots.
ABOUT EMPORIA STATE
The Hornets are 8-8 on the season, 3-5 in the MIAA. They are third in the MIAA in field goal percentage defense. Taylor Euler is leading the MIAA in assist to turnover ratio and is the only player with a ratio above 3.0 on the year.
ABOUT NEBRASKA-KEARNEY
The Lopers are 5-13 on the year, 2-8 in their first year in the MIAA. They have yet to win an MIAA home game, but have wins at Northeastern State and Mo. Southern. UNK is ranked third in the MIAA in field goal percentage, but 15th in field goal percentage defense. John Henderson leads three active players in double figures at 15.0 points per game. Nine players have started at least one game for the Lopers.
SERIES HISTORY
This will be the 32nd meeting between the two teams with Nebraska-Kearney holding a 17-14 lead. This is the first time the Hornets and Lopers have met as MIAA members with the previous 31 meetings coming in the CSIC. Emporia State has won five straight in the series. The Hornets have scored over 100 points in each of the last three meetings - at games in Kearney, Emporia and a neutral site in Hays, Kan.
LAST TIME VS. THE LOPERS
Dennis Fort and Howard Bonser each scored 23 points to lead the Hornets to a 108-68 victory over the Lopers at the CSIC Classic in Hays, Kan. Tom Burton had a team high 14 rebounds while Eric Coleman dished six assists. Emporia State shot a blistering .622 from the field in the win as the Hornets improved to 20-8 on the season.
UP NEXT
Emporia State will wrap up their short two game road trip at Northwest Missouri. Tip-off at Bearcat Arena in Maryville, Mo. is set for 3:30 p.m.
