Men's Basketball | 2/7/2025 4:18:00 PM
GAME 23
Emporia State (7-15, 4-9 MIAA) at Missouri Southern (10-11, 5-7 MIAA)
Saturday, Feb. 8 • 3:30 p.m. • Joplin, Mo. • Leggett & Platt Center
Series Record: MSSU leads 56-33 •
Last Meeting: MSSU 73, at ESU 70 (1/21/2024)
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
SHOW ME STATE SHOWDOWN IN JOPLIN
Emporia State and Missouri Southern meet up with major MIAA Tournament implications.
ABOUT THE HORNETS
Emporia State is 7-15, 4-9 in the MIAA and have won three of their last five.
Parker Day is fourth in the MIAA 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 LIONS
Missouri Southern is 10-11, 5-7 in the MIAA. The Lions led the league in three-point percentage, are second in made three-pointers and third in scoring offense. Martin Macenis is ninth in the MIAA in scoring.
ABOUT THE COACHES
Tom Billeter is 497-289 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 was 2-0 against Missouri Southern at Augustana.
Sam McMahon is 40-40 in his third season at Mo Southern. He is 1-1 against ESU.
UP NEXT
The Hornets return to White Auditorium to take on Fort Hays State. The members of the ESU Athletic Director's Honor Roll will be recognized at halftime. Tip-off is set for 7:30 p.m.
LAST TIME OUT
It was a tale of two halves as Emporia State led early before Pittsburg State mounted a second half comeback in an 85-79 Gorilla win on Thursday in Pittsburg, Kan.
The Hornets scored the first nine points of the game and a
Parker Day three-pointer at the 9:01 mark gave Emporia State their biggest lead of the night at 30-14. The Gorillas then went on a 10-0 run to cut the lead to 30-24. Pitt State scored the final five points including a near buzzer beating three from Jordan Frison to make it 34-29 at the break. The Hornets held the Gorillas, who entered the game leading the league in made three pointers to just one of ten from beyond the arc in the first half and just 38.2% shooting from the field overall.
R.J. Forney tied the game at 36 with a three-pointer at the 18:21 mark. There would be four ties and 11 lead changes over the next eight and a half minutes. Day hit two free throws with 10:07 left to give the Hornets a 54-53 lead. The Gorillas answered with a 9-0 run to take the lead for good. Emporia State went on a 9-1 run to make it a two-possession game at 77-71 with 2:29 left.
Devin Conley scored off a Gorilla turnover wth 27.0 seconds left to make it 82-77 but Pitt State hit three of four free throws in the final 22.1 to seal the win. The Gorillas shot 69% from the field and 50% from the three-point arc in the second half.
Karyiek Dixon led Emporia State with a career high 29 points on ten of 17 shooting with five rebounds and three steals.
Chris Harris was the only other Hornet in double figures with 14 points and a team high seven rebounds but all eight players that were available scored at least three points.
SERIES HISTORY
This will be the 90th meeting with Missouri Southern holding a 56-33 overall advantage.
LAST TIME VS MISSOURI SOUTHERN
Emporia State gave up 52% shooting in the second half in a 73-70 loss to Missouri Southern on Sunday afternoon. The Lions jumped out to a 6-0 lead less than a minute into the game and led by 13 points with 12:06 left in the half. Emporia State responded with a 15-2 run to tie the game at 26.
Darius Yohe had a put back dunk at the buzzer to give Emporia State a 35-32 lead at the break. Missouri Southern opened the second half with a 10-2 run to retake the lead at 42-37 with 16:29 left. The Hornets used a 9-2 run to tie the game with 1:16 left. Martin Macenis drove the baseline and scored on a reverse lay-up with 53 seconds left to put Southern up 69-67. Comithier hit one of two free throws with 40.6 seconds left to get ESU within 69-68. A Southern three with 19.1 seconds left made it a two possession game.
Alijah Comithier had 19 points,
Owen Long 18 and
Atavian Butler added 13 for Emporia State.
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 57-44 in MIAA play with a 79-55 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 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.
