March 8, 2015-In a game befitting the top two defenses in the MIAA, tenth ranked Emporia State defeated fourth ranked Ft. Hays State 49-46 in the MIAA Tournament Championship Game. It is the third straight tournament title for the Lady Hornets and seventh overall.
The Lady Hornets jumped out to a 5-0 lead to start the game and led 15-6 with 12:51 left in the half. The Tigers then went on a 9-0 run to tie the score at 15 on a four point play by Nikola Kacperska wtih 10:39 left. Tourney Most Outstanding Player Kelly Moten then went on a personal 10-4 run to give the Lady Hornets a 25-19 lead with 3:26 left. A pair of Jacee Kramer free throws made it 27-19 before Jill Faxon hit a jumper with 1:28 left to cut Emporia State's lead to six. Moten found Kyrstie Miller for a three-pointer at the buzzer to send the Lady Hornets into the locker room with a 30-21 lead.
Emporia State took their biggest lead of the game with 18:11 left on a Merissa Quick layup to go up 34-23. Ft. Hays State then went on a 9-2 run to cut the lead to four at 36-32 with 11:48 left. The Lady Hornets went back up by seven on a pair of free throws from Kramer with 5:29 left. After the Tigers cut the lead to one a 42-41 on a Kacperska fast break layup with 3:31 left Kathryn Flott buried a three-pointer with 3:04 left to push the lead back to four.
Kate Lehman scored the next three points for the Tigers, but missed a free throw with 1:35 left that could have tied the game at 45. After a Lady Hornet missed shot Kacperska gave the Tigers their only lead of the game on a jumper at the elbow with 55.6 left. Moten then drove the lane for the go ahead layup with 31.8 seconds left. Faxon missed a three pointer for the Tigers that went out of bounds with 8.5 seconds left. Moten was fouled with 7.7 seconds left and hit both free throws for a 49-46 lead. Kacperska's three-pointer with four seconds was off mark and Miller secured the rebound to seal the Lady Hornets seventh MIAA Tournament Championship.
Moten led Emporia State with 16 points and a career high 12 rebounds and five assists. Flott added nine points and three rebounds while Quick had eight points and four rebounds. Kramer was four of four from the line and tied the MIAA Tournament record for best perfect tournament going 12 for 12 in the Lady Hornets three games.
With the win Emporia State secured the MIAA's automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament and will be making their 17th tournament appearance in the last 19 years.
NOTES
Emporia State has now won nine straight MIAA Tournament games and are 13-2 in the MIAA Tournament under coach Jory Collins.
Coach Collins is the first person to take a team to five straight MIAA Championship games his first five years as a head coach.
Merissa Quick ended her MIAA Tournament career with 165 points to rank third all-time in tournament career scoring, her 71 rebounds rank seventh in tourney history and her 24 blocks are second all-time.
