Men's Basketball | 2/28/2025 3:27:00 PM
GAME 28
Emporia State (10-17, 7-11 MIAA) at Northwest Missouri (6-21, 4-14 MIAA)
Saturday, March 1 • 3:30 p.m. • Maryville, Mo. • Bearcat Arena
Series Record: NWMSU leads 52-27 •
Last Meeting: NWMSU 65, at ESU 54 (12/5/2024)
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: MIAA Tournament starts Wednesday March 5 • Kansas City, Mo. • Municipal Auditorium
MARCH MADNESS BEGINS
Emporia State travels to Northwest Missouri needing a win to guarantee a spot in the MIAA Tournament.
ABOUT THE HORNETS
Emporia State is 10-17, 7-11 in the MIAA and eighth in the KPI standings. ESU is fourth in the league in three-point percentage.
Parker Day is fourth in the MIAA and
Karyiek Dixon is seventh in rebounding.
ABOUT THE BEARCATS
Northwest Missouri is 6-21, 4-14 in the MIAA and 14th in the KPI standings. The Bearcats are third in the MIAA in three-point field goal percentage defense. JAck Ratigan is third in the MIAA in blocked shots.
ABOUT THE COACHES
Tom Billeter is 500-291 in his 27th season as a head coach and is 10-17 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 Northwest Missouri at ESU and went 2-4 against NWMSU while at Augie including a win in the 2016 NCAA Regional Championship game.
Matt Keeley is 6-21 in his first year at Northwest Missouri. He is 1-0 against Emporia State.
UP NEXT
The MIAA Tournament begins on Wednesday, March 5 at Municipal Auditorium in Kansas City, Mo. The men will play in the afternoon sessions.
LAST TIME OUT
Emporia State scored a season high 95 points and put five players in double figures in a 95-85 win over Missouri Western to keep their MIAA Tournament hopes alive.
The Griffons opened the game hitting eight of their first nine shots to build a 24-12 lead with 13:14 left in the half. The Hornets answered with a 19-5 run in which they hit six of seven from the field to take a 31-29 lead with 8:22 left in the half. Emporia State closed the half on a 15-4 run to lead 49-43 at the break. The Hornets scored the first 12 points of the second half to extend their run to 17-0 and take their biggest lead of the night at 61-43 with 16:56 left. The Griffons chipped away and a pair of Zane Nelson free throws with 4:26 left made it 83-75.
Arhman Lewis answered with another three-pointer followed by two free throws from
Justin Mack t give Emporia State an 88-75 lead with 3:39 to go. The Griffons scored the next eight points to trail 88-83 with 2:04 left. Day pushed the Hornet lead back to double digits with a jump hook in the lane to give ESU a 93-83 lead with 57.1 seconds left. Zion Swader scored with 49 seconds left but it would be the last points of the game for Western while
Karyiek Dixon hit two of four free throws for the final score.
Parker Day led Emporia State with 24 points as all five starters reached double figures for the Hornets.
Arhman Lewis had 17 points and six assists,
Brayson Laube was a perfect five of five from the field with four three-pointers and two free throws for 16 points.
Chris Harris scored 14 with six rebounds while
Karyiek Dixon scored ten and grabbed a team high seven boards. ESU's 16 of 23 (.696) effort from the three-point line was their best 3FG percentage since going 18 of 23 (.783) against Central Oklahoma on November 16, 2009.
SERIES HISTORY
This will be the 80th meeting with the Bearcats leading 52-27 overall.
LAST TIME VS NORTHWEST MISSOURI
Emporia State was held to just 17.6% shooting from the three-point line in a 65-54 loss to Northwest Missouri.
The Hornets jumped out to a 9-3 lead 4:26 into the game. The Bearcats then went on a 14-2 run to take a 17-11 lead with 10:25 left in the half. NWMSU led 60-46 when
Arhman Lewis went on a personal 8-0 run to get the Hornets within 60-54 with 3:21 left. ESU had three chances to cut the lead before Northwest closed the game going five of six from the free throw line in the final 1:03 to make the final score 65-54.
Brayson Laube scored 17 points and four steals and was joined in double figures by
Arhman Lewis with 16 points while
Karyiek Dixon scored 15 with a team high nine rebounds.
CLOSERS
The Hornets have won 48 of their last 51 games when leading at the 5:00 minute mark of the second half. They are 10-1 under Coach Billeter.
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. Emporia State is currently in eighth in the KPI standings but could finish anywhere between fifth and 11th after Saturday's games. 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 1,520 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 442-207 (.681) since 1979 in White Auditorium. Emporia State has won 227 of their last 329 games (.690) 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.
Currently there is only one MIAA school, one GAC school and eight NSIC schools in the top ten of the Central Regional Rankings.
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 60-46 in MIAA play with an 82-57 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.
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.
