Home Opener for Emporia State Men's Basketball is Sunday

Men's Basketball | 11/30/2024 10:39:00 PM

GAME 7
Emporia State (1-5) vs. Peru State (7-2)
Sunday, December 1 • 2:00 p.m. • Emporia, Kan. • Slaymaker Court/White Auditorium
Series Record: ESU leads 5-2 • Last Meeting: at ESU 97, PSC 88 (1990-91)
Radio: Hornet Sports Network KFFX-FM (104.9)/1490AM Topeka/103.7FM Kansas City 
Internet Audio: kvoe.com | Television: None | Internet Video: The MIAA Network
Live Stats | Ticket Info | Complete Notes in pdf
Up Next: Northwest Missouri • Thursday, Dec. 5 • 7:30 p.m. • Emporia, Kan. •White Auditorium

FINALLY HOME
Emporia State makes their home debut under Tom Billeter as they play host to Peru State on Sunday afternoon. The Hornets have won 21 of their last 24 season openers.

LAST TIME OUT
Emporia State placed three starters in double figures but it was not enough in a 74-67 loss at Colorado Mesa on Saturday night in Grand Junction, Colo.
Malik Edwards scored 19 points while Devin Conley scored a career high 16 points with five assists as he got his first career start for the injured Arhman Lewis.  Brayson Laube rounded out the double figures scorers with 14 points. Donald Coats III scored nine points with seven rebounds but was the only Hornet off the bench to score.

ABOUT THE COACHES
Tom Billeter is 1-5 in his first season at Emporia State and is 491-280 in his 27th season as a head coach after going 393-224 in 21 years at Augustana. With the Vikings he won the 2016 National Championship, went to nine NCAA Tournaments, won three regular season NSIC Championships, two NSIC Tournament Championships, and 18 consecutive winnings seasons since 2007. He went 3-0 against Peru State while at Augustana.
Roman Gentry is 52-22 in his third year at Peru State. This is his first meeting with Emporia State.

UP NEXT
The Hornets begin MIAA play on December 5 against Northwest Missouri. Tip-off from White Auditorium is set for 7:30 p.m.

ABOUT THE HORNETS
Emporia State is 1-5 in their first year under coach Tom Billeter with all five losses coming on the road to teams that are ranked or have received votes in the first two NABC National Polls. Seven players are averaging over 6.4 points per game led by Malik Edwards at 17.7 and Brayson Laube at 13.5 points per game. Don Coats is averaging a team best 7.2 rebounds per game. Arhman Lewis is averaging 4.2 assists per game. 

ABOUT THE BOBCATS
Peru State is 7-2 on the year and ranked #20 in the NAIA Division I National Poll. They dropped an 82-56 exhibition game at Washburn on Saturday afternoon. Carlos Hines is averaging 14.1 points per game while Devin Tomlinson adds 11.9 points per game. As a team they are averaging 74.1 points per game and hitting 7.2 three-pointers per contest. 

SERIES HISTORY
Emporia State leads the all-time series 5-2 but this is the first meeting since the 1990-91 season.

LAST TIME VS PERU STATE
Howard Bonser scored 31 points to lead Emporia State to a 97-88 victory over PEru State in the first game of the Emporia Jaycee/Fox 105 Classic in 1990.  Andy Uphoff had 13 rebounds while Eddie Williams dished seven assists for the Hornets. 

1500 AND COUNTING
The Hornets have won 1,511 games in their 120th year of playing basketball. They are ranked 16th in total wins among active NCAA Division II schools.

CENTURY MARK
Emporia State's 100-73 win over Newman last year marked the 104th time the Hornets have cracked the century mark in their history.    
The Hornets scored at least 100 points 60 times under coach Ron Slaymaker (827 total games in 28 seasons), 26 times under David Moe (288 games in 10 seasons), eight times under Craig Doty (173 games in six seasons), five times under Shaun Vandiver (199 games in seven seasons), three times under Gus Fish (602 games in 25 seasons) and once under Marc Comstock (82 games in three seasons).

REGIONALLY SPEAKING
The NCAA Central Region is made up of teams in the MIAA, Northern Sun and Great American Conferences. This year the MIAA is 14-17 against the region with a 10-9 record against the NSIC and a 4-8 mark against the GAC. Overall in non-conference action the NSIC is 37-23  against D2 competition, the MIAA is 27-25 and the GAC is 12-15.
Seven of the last ten national champions have come from the Central Region, including coach Billeter's 2016 win at Augustana, and the region has been represented in eight of the last ten national championship games.

LAST THREE YEARS
For the first time in school history Emporia State has recorded three straight years with at least a .500 record in MIAA play. Starting in 2020-21 the Hornets have gone 53-35 in MIAA play with a 73-45 overall record. 

FRIENDLY CONFINES
The Hornets have won 18 of their last 21 games in White Auditorium. The 14 wins are the most home wins by the Hornets since they went 14-3 in 2006-07. They are 435-201 (.684) since 1979 in White Auditorium. Emporia State has won 36 of their last 45 (.800) games since the start of the 2021-22 season and 219 of their last 315 games (.695) in White Auditorium dating back to the 2002-03 season. In the last 35 years, they have twice had home court winning streaks of at least 20 games. The first was 23 games from 1985-87 followed by a school record 25 game streak from February 12, 2003-January 1, 2005.  They have posted home winning seasons in 20 of the last 22 seasons.

HORNETS RANK IN NATION IN ATTENDANCE
In 17 home games last year the Hornets averaged 1,224 fans per game to rank 16th in the nation among the over 300 NCAA Division II basketball playing schools. It continued a string of 20 straight years, not counting COVID, ranking in the top 25 in attendance for Emporia State. The Hornets drew 19,627 total fans for an average of 1,402 fans to their 14 home games at Slaymaker Court in White Auditorium during the 2021-22 season to rank seventh nationally. 

HORNETS IN THE POST SEASON
The 2022-23 season marked Emporia State's third trip to the NCAA Tournament in 33 years as a member of the NCAA Division II. The Hornets first NCAA Tournament game was an 85-81 loss to Drury in Stephenville, Texas on March 13, 2004.  Their next appearance was a 72-66 loss to Southeastern Oklahoma on March 10, 2007.  Prior to joining the NCAA, Emporia State made ten trips to Kansas City for the NAIA National Tournament and compiled a record of 13-12 with a pair of national semifinal appearances. The finished fourth in 1947 and again in 1964.

IN THE RANKINGS
There is one MIAA team in the Top 25 and two more receiving votes in the this week's National Association of Basketball Coaches (NABC) National Poll. Emporia State has received votes in seven NABC National Polls last season and were in the Top 25 the first five weeks of the season. During the 2022-23 season Emporia State had a string of five straight weeks being ranked, their longest streak since a ten week span during the 2006-07 season. The Hornets spent 22 weeks in the NABC Top 25 from 2003-08, getting as high as seventh in the nation on three different occasions.  

CLOSERS
The Hornets have won 39 of their last 42 games when leading at the 5:00 minute mark of the second half. They are 1-1 under Coach Billeter.

GIVE ME 20
The 2023 season was the fourth time Emporia State won 20 games as a member of the NCAA and the 12th time in school history. The Hornets had not won 20 games in back to back years since reaching the 20 win mark in three straight seasons from 1987-90. ESU won at least 20 games in five out of six seasons from 1985-90. Emporia State has won at least ten games in conference play 12 times over the last 34 seasons.

LISTEN & WATCH LIVE
Audio of all Emporia State games are available on the Hornet Sports Network across Northeast Kansas and into Missouri. Flagship station KFFX 104.9FM is joined by SportsRadio 1490AM in Topeka and 103.7FM in Kansas City as the Voice of the Hornets Blake Cripps calls the action. Audio is also available on kvoe.com and the Audacy app. KFFX is in their 37th straight year as the radio home of Hornet Athletics, the longest active streak between a commercial station and an MIAA school.
Video webcasts for all of Emporia State's regular season games are available on a pay per view basis from the MIAA Digital Network. The MIAA Network content is available live and is immediately archived for on-demand viewing after each event.  Fans can find the action on www.themiaanetwork.com and on The MIAA Network apps for Amazon Fire TV, Android TV, Apple TV, and Roku.