Men's Basketball | 2/14/2025 3:21:00 PM
GAME 25
Emporia State (9-15, 6-9 MIAA) at Neb.-Kearney (9-13, 7-7 MIAA)
Saturday, Feb. 15 • 4:00 p.m. • Kearney, Neb. • Health & Sports Center
Series Record: Series tied at 25 •
Last Meeting: UNK 69, at ESU 67 (1/11/2025)
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 Newman • Saturday, Feb. 22 • 3:30 p.m. • Wichita, Kan. • Fugate Gymnasium
BETTER DO WHAT YOU CAN
Winner of five of their last seven, Emporia State travels to Neb.-Kearney to take on the Lopers.
ABOUT THE HORNETS
Emporia State is 9-15, 6-9 in the MIAA and have won five of their last seven. In MIAA only games ESU leads the league in opponent three-point percentage, is third in defensive rebounds and fourth in field goal percentage defense.
Parker Day is third in MIAA only rebounding while
Karyiek Dixon is 22nd in scoring and fifth in rebounding.
ABOUT THE LOPERS
Neb.-Kearney is 9-13, 7-7 in the MIAA. The Lopers are third in the league in steals and fifth in turnover margin. Ja'Bryant Hill is sixth in the MIAA in scoring.
ABOUT THE COACHES
Tom Billeter is 499-289 in his 27th season as a head coach and is 9-15 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 the Lopers at Emporia State while he is 4-4 against UNK overall.
Marty Levinson is 9-13 in his first year at Neb.-Kearney. He is 1-0 against Emporia State.
UP NEXT
The Hornets are off until Saturday, February 22 when they travel to Newman. Tip-off from Fugate Gymnasium in Wichita is set for 3:30 p.m.
LAST TIME OUT
In a rock fight of a game, Emporia State used an early 9-2 run to take control on the way to a 58-44 win over Fort Hays State on Thursday night in White Auditorium.
The Tigers scored first to open the action and led 5-4 on a Kaleb Hammeke three-pointer with 16:40 left in the first half. Neither team would score over the next three and a half minutes until
Brayson Laube hit a step back jumper to give the Hornets a 6-5 lead with 13:09 left. Emporia State led 10-8 following a Hammeke three-pointer for FHSU midway through the first half. The Hornets then went on a 9-2 run capped by a
Chris Harris break away dunk with 6:41 left following a
Karyiek Dixon steal. Harris would hit a three-pointer with 1:01 left to give Emporia State a 32-19 lead but Fort Hays State scored the final three points with Shaun Riley beating the buzzer on a layup to make it 32-22 at the half.
Riley hit a free throw and Kyle Grill scored inside to extend the Tigers run to 6-0 as they trailed 32-25 with 18:37 left. The Hornets answered by holding the Tigers without a field goal for the next 7:24. ESU used an 11-0 run, with
Arhman Lewis scoring the first seven points, to take a 43-25 lead with 14:17 left. Riley snapped the run with a pair of free throws at the 13:49 mark. Lucas Hammeke scored on old fashioned three-point play with 11:13 left to get the Tigers within 13 at 43-30.
Devin Conley scored on a pull up jumper near the elbow with 10:27 left to give Emporia State a 45-30 lead. The Tigers would not get closer than 12 points the rest of the night as the Hornets cruised to the 58-44 victory.
Arhman Lewis scored 14 points to lead a balanced Hornet offense.
Karyiek Dixon added eight points and a team high ten rebounds while
Chris Harris and
Justin Mack each scored eight as well.
Parker Day had nine rebounds to go with two blocked shots and four points.
SERIES HISTORY
This will be the 51st meeting between the two teams with the series tied 25-25 all-time. Emporia State leads 11-8 in MIAA play and has won five of the last seven games in the series.
LAST TIME VS NEB.-KEARNEY
Emporia State scored 46 second half points but it was not enough in a 69-67 loss to Neb.-Kearney on Saturday night in White Auditorium.
Malik Edwards Jr. hit a three with 1:17 left and then got a steal and was fouled with 59.9 seconds left. He hit one of two free throws to tie the game at 62. The Lopers would hit seven of eight free throws in the final 39.6 seconds to pull out the 69-67 victory.
Arhman Lewis had 18 points to lead four Hornets in double figures. Edwards scored 16,
Parker Day had 13 and
Devin Conley scored ten points. Day had 11 rebounds and six assists.
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 1,519 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 441-207 (.681) since 1979 in White Auditorium. Emporia State has won 226 of their last 328 games (.689) 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 59-44 in MIAA play with a 81-55 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 47 of their last 50 games when leading at the 5:00 minute mark of the second half. They are 9-1 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.
