Men's Basketball | 2/5/2025 9:01:00 PM
GAME 22
Emporia State (7-14, 4-8 MIAA) at PITTSBURG STATE (11-9, 7-4 MIAA)
Thursday, Feb. 6 • 7:30 p.m. • Pittsburg, Kan. • John Lance Arena
Series Record: ESU leads 105-97 •
Last Meeting: at PSU 79, ESU 76 (2/28/2024)
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: at Missouri Southern • Saturday, Feb. 8 • 3:30 p.m. • Joplin, Mo. • Leggett & Platt Center
BACK ON THE ROAD
The Hornets will play five of their final seven games on the road starting at Pittsburg State.
ABOUT THE HORNETS
Emporia State is 7-14, 4-8 in the MIAA and have won three of their last four.
Malik Edwards Jr. is 19th in the MIAA in scoring while
Parker Day is fourth in rebounding. In MIAA only games ESU is second in opponent three-point percentage, third in defensive rebounds and fourth in field goal percentage defense.
ABOUT THE GORILLAS
Pittsburg State is 11-9, 7-4 in the MIAA. The Gorillas lead the league in made three-pointers. Avery Taggert is sixth in the MIAA in scoring and second in made three-pointers.
ABOUT THE COACHES
Tom Billeter is 497-288 in his 27th season as a head coach and is 6-14 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 was 1-0 against Pitt State at Augie.
Jeff Boschee is 40-40 in his third season at Pittsburg State and 191-126 in his 11th year overall. He is 2-2 against Emporia State at Pitt State and 10-4 in his career.
UP NEXT
The Hornets go to Missouri Southern on Saturday. Tip-off in Joplin is at 3:30 p.m.
LAST TIME OUT
Emporia State built a two point lead at the half and grew it in the second half on the way to a 74-65 win over Central Oklahoma on Sunday afternoon in White Auditorium.
Parker Day hit two free throws with 3:50 left in the first to give Emporia State a 26-19 lead but the Bronchos ended the half on a 9-4 run to get within 30-28 at the break. An Edwards three-pointer gave Emporia State a 54-45 lead with 8:11 left but the Bronchos would score the next five points to make it 54-50 with 7:13 remaining.
Chris Harris got a put back dunk with 6:45 left to push the lead back to six points. JV Seat answered with a three-pointer to get it back to three points with 6:39 left. Lewis scored the first four points of a 12-4 Hornet run that put Emporia State up 68-57 with 2:00 remaining and Central Oklahoma would not get closer than eight points the rest of the way.
Brayson Laube led Emporia State with 19 points on seven of ten shooting.
Karyiek Dixon scored 13 and Ahrman Lewis added 12 points.
Dallas Bear had a career high 13 rebounds while
Parker Day added 12 boards.
Justin Mack had a team high four assists with no turnovers.
SERIES HISTORY
This will be the 203rd meeting between the two teams with Emporia State holding a 105-97 overall advantage.
LAST TIME VS PITTSBURG STATE
Emporia State came up short in a 79-76 loss at Pittsburg State. The Gorillas used a 15-4 run to take a 17-9 lead at the 10:33 mark. The Hornets then went on a 10-2 run to tie the game at 19 with 7:44 left. Pitt State led 31-25 at the break. ESU used an 8-2 run to take a 55-54 lead on a pair of
Alijah Comithier free throws at the 9:48 mark. The Gorillas went back up 69-62 with 3:11 remaining. A 9-4 run capped by an
Owen Long three pointer with 1:24 left pulled ESU within 73-71. Pitt State led 77-71 with 1:04 left and Comithier cut the deficit in half with a trey with 56.9 left.
Darius Yohe grabbed a rebound with 24 seconds left and
Atavian Butler scored in the paint with 11.1 left to make it 77-76. Max Alexander hit two free throws with 10.0 left for PSU and the Hornets missed a potential game winner with under a second left. Butler had a career high 27 points and Comithier added 21 with 10 rebounds.
1500 AND COUNTING
The Hornets have won 1,517 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. 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 three 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.
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.
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 57-43 in MIAA play with a 79-54 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 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 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 45 of their last 48 games when leading at the 5:00 minute mark of the second half. They are 7-1 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.
