Men's Basketball | 2/12/2025 1:56:00 PM
GAME 24
Emporia State (8-15, 5-9 MIAA) vs. Fort Hays State (15-7, 8-5 MIAA)
Thursday, Feb. 13 • 7:30 p.m. • Emporia, Kan. • WL White Auditorium
Series Record: FHSU leads 105-88 •
Last Meeting: at FHSU 69, ESU 44 (1/9/2025)
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: at Neb.-Kearney • Saturday, Feb. 15 • 4:00 p.m. • Kearney, Neb. • Health & Sports Center
PENULTIMATE MATCHUP
Emporia State takes on Fort Hay State in the second to last home game for the Hornets.
ABOUT THE HORNETS
Emporia State is 8-15, 5-9 in the MIAA and have won four of their last six.
Parker Day is fourth in the MIAA in rebounding. In MIAA only games ESU leads the league in opponent three-point percentage, is fourth in defensive rebounds and fifth in field goal percentage defense.
Parker Day is third in MIAA only rebounding while
Karyiek Dixon is 20th in scoring and fifth in rebounding.
ABOUT THE TIGERS
Fort Hays State is 15-7, 8-5 in the MIAA. The Tigers lead the league in scoring defense, field goal and three-point field goal percentage defense. Kaleb Hammeke is 12th in the MIAA in scoring.
ABOUT THE COACHES
Tom Billeter is 498-289 in his 27th season as a head coach and is 7-15 in his first season at Emporia State after going 394-224 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 Tourney Championships, and 18 consecutive winning seasons. He is 0-1 against Fort Hays State at ESU and went 0-2 against FHSU while at NDSU.
Mark Johnson is 466-227 in his 24th year at Fort Hays State. He is 26-11 against Emporia State.
UP NEXT
The Hornets travel to Neb.-Kearney on Saturday. Tip-off is set for 4:00 p.m.
LAST TIME OUT
All five Hornet starters reached double figures in an 83-74 Emporia State win at Missouri Southern on Saturday afternoon.
Southern led 16-14 on a Tyrique Brooks put back with 12:29 left when Emporia State went on an 8-0 run over the next two and a half minutes to take the lead for good. The Lions got back to within 25-22 with 3:46 left when
Brayson Laube and
Dallas Bear hit back to back three-pointers to push the lead back to nine points with 2:38 left in the half. Southern got back within three with 19 seconds left but Bear hit his third three of the half at the buzzer to give Emporia State a 37-31 lead at the break.
A hoop and harm by Southern's Isaiah Atwater made it 39-36 with 17:41 left when the Hornets went on a 13-2 run.
Parker Day hit a three-pointer to cap the run with 14:44 left as Emporia State went up 52-38. Emporia State had a 59-47 lead when Southern rattled off ten straight points to get within 59-57 with 5:59 left and force the Hornets to call timeout. Day was fouled out of the time out and hit both free throws to put ESU back up 61-57. On the next possession
Karyiek Dixon got a steal and
Arhman Lewis converted it into a layup at the other end to make it 63-57. Day then found Dixon inside for a layup to end a 6-0 spurt and give the Hornets a 65-57 lead with 4:28 left. The teams traded scores for the next four minutes, with Laube personally countering every Southern score with nine points of his own, the last coming on two free throws with 1:09 left. The Hornets would go seven of eight from the line in the final 42.2 seconds to seal the win.
Parker Day had a career high 25 points, including a ten of 12 effort from the free throw line, with nine rebounds to lead Emporia State.
Chris Harris had his first career double-double with 13 points and a career high ten rebounds.
Arhman Lewis scored 12 points with five assists while
Brayson Laube scored 12 and
Karyiek Dixon added ten points.
SERIES HISTORY
This will be the 194th meeting between the two with Fort Hays State holding a 105-88 lead. It is the third most played series for Emporia State behind Washburn and Pittsburg State.
LAST TIME VS FORT HAYS STATE
The Hornet offense struggled in the first half on the way to a 69-44 loss at Fort Hays State. Emporia State was held to just 17 points in the opening 20 minutes. The Hornets were held without a field goal for over six minutes as the Tigers built a 38-15 lead before Devin Conly got a steal and layup with 15 seconds left in the half. Malik Edwards was the lone Hornet in double-figures, scoring 10 points.
Karyiek Dixon had nine points and eight rebounds. Emporia State starting guard
Brayson Laube sat out the game with a hip pointer. It is the eighth game missed by a starter this year for the Hornets.
KPI UPDATE
With an unbalanced 19 game schedule this year the MIAA will be using the KPI Ranking system for MIAA Tournament seeding at the end of the regular season. KPI ranks every team's wins and losses on a positive-to-negative scale, where the worst-possible loss receives a value of roughly around -1.0 and the best-possible win receives a value of roughly 1.0. KPI then averages these scores across a season to give a score to a team's winning percentage. The formula uses opponent's winning percentage, opponent's strength of schedule, scoring margin, pace of game, location, and opponent's KPI ranking.
1500 AND COUNTING
The Hornets have won 1,518 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).
FRIENDLY CONFINES
The Hornets are 440-207 (.680) since 1979 in White Auditorium. Emporia State has won 225 of their last 327 games (.688) 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.
REGIONALLY SPEAKING
The NCAA Central Region is made up of teams in the MIAA, Northern Sun and Great American Conferences. Overall in non-conference action the NSIC is 62-40, the MIAA is 78-52 and the GAC is 39-31. This year the MIAA is 16-24 against the region with a 10-12 record against the NSIC and a 6-12 mark against the GAC.
The MIAA is one of four Division II conferences, and the only one in the Central Region, in which every team's opponents winning percentage is at .500 or above with a winning conference record against D2 opponents.
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 recorded three straight years with at least a .500 record in MIAA play between 2021-2024. Starting in 2020-21 the Hornets have gone 58-44 in MIAA play with a 80-55 overall record.
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 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. 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 in the latest National Association of Basketball Coaches (NABC) National Poll. Emporia State 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 46 of their last 49 games when leading at the 5:00 minute mark of the second half. They are 8-1 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.
The MIAA has entered into an agreement with Scripps Media and their independent television station KMCI, serving the Kansas City metropolitan area on 38 The Spot, to continue its MIAA TV Game of the Week broadcasts throughout the 2025 NCAA Division II basketball season. Beginning with Turnpike Tussle January 4 in White Auditorium, 38 The Spot will broadcast NCAA Division II men's and women's basketball games from nine different MIAA campuses in January and February. The broadcast schedule will wrap up with the live broadcast of the MIAA men's and women's championship games from the 2025 basketball tournament at Municipal Auditorium in downtown Kansas City on March 9.
