February 29, 2020-Emporia State battled #17 Rogers State but could not get over the hump in a 77-66 loss on Saturday afternoon in White Auditorium.
The Hillcats raced out to a 16-5 lead in the first five minutes and led 21-7 with 12:54 left in the half. The Hornets then went on a 12-3 run, with ten of the points coming from freshmen, to cut the lead to 24-19 with 9:19 left in the half. Rogers State went back up by 11 with 3:07 left but
Gage McGuire hit one of two free throws and later scored inside to make it 36-28 going to the locker rooms.
The deficit stayed between eight and 13 points for the first seven and a half minutes of the second period before the Hillcats went on a 9-0 run to take their largest lead of the day at 61-40 lead with 11:09 left in the game. The Hornets used a 9-4 run to get it back to 12 points with the ball after a
Mason Thiessen block with around four minutes left but
Zac Owens three-pointer from the corner missed. The Hillcats Jett Sternberger nailed a three of his own to make it 73-58 with 3:23 remaining.
Keyon Thomas led the Hornets with 27 points on five of six shooting from beyond the arc and dished a team high six assists. He was joined in double figures by
Mason Thiessen with ten points while
Duncan Fort had a career high 11 rebounds.
The Hornets end the season 10-18 with players missing a total of 88 games with injuries including season ending injuries to starters
Aaron McGee,
Brenden Van Dyke and
Dallas Bailey.
NOTES:
With his 27 points
Keyon Thomas finished the season with 335 points as he passed Wes Book (323 points in 2004-05) and tied Brady Webb (335 points in 2001-02) for fourth on the Hornets freshman scoring list.
Emporia State's five freshmen combined to score 696 points of the Hornets total of 2,032 points (34.3%), 332 of their 1025 (32.4%) of their rebounds, and 150 of their 357 (42.0%) of their assists on the season.
The Hornets finished the season with a 9-7 home record,matching their most home wins since 2014 and their 17th winning home season in the last 19 years.
