Brien & Nebeker Wrap Up Loper Careers
Kearney, Neb. – All-American candidate Kaleb Hammeke had a double double and regionally-ranked Fort Hays State used a last second stop to slip past Nebraska Kearney, 45-42, Saturday evening at the Health & Sports Center. The Tigers, ranked eighth in the Central Region, keeps its NCAA Tournament hopes alive as it finishes the regular season at 20-8 (15-7). UNK ends at 5-22 (3-19) with 13 of its setbacks coming by 10 points or less. "We've had this happen to use quite a bit throughout the year. I felt like the kids competed and we had to overcome a 10-point deficit to put ourselves in a great position. Just a play or two away there at the end," said UNK head coach Kevin Lofton. Hays came into the week ranked third in Division II in scoring defense (57.8 ppg) and was again in another rock fight. They've now played seven games where both teams failed to reach 60 points. "Just like them, we could not find the basket in the first half and that made it hard," said Lofton. "Second half we executed our motion offense a lot better and that helped us get it going." UNK finished plus nine on the glass and out shot their rivals by six percentage points. However, 14 turnovers led to 17 Tiger points. The live ball miscue cropped up late after the Lopers saw Tiger redshirt freshman guard Lucas Hammeke miss a baseline layup and putback with 39 seconds left. Down 43-42, a final play was drawn up to Utah super senior Darrian Nebeker near the top of the key with about 22 seconds left. However, the entry pass was tipped away by 6-7 Iceland junior wing Bjarni Jonsson. That led to two freebies from Kaleb Hammeke who had 15 rebounds, 11 points and four assists. "We executed the defensive game plan. We wanted to make it as tough as we could on Hammeke and he only had 11 points (on 3 of 12 shooting)," said Lofton. The Lopers had a chance to force over-time but Colorado sophomore Sean Evans saw his fadeaway three from the left wing blocked by 6-5 sophomore Trajeon Davis as the buzzer sounded. UNK erased a 31-21 second halftime deficit thanks to a 14-2 run. Auburn redshirt freshman guard Cam Binder knocked down a triple with a right wing three from Iowa redshirt sophomore Jaleque Dunson giving its Lopers its first lead, 35-33, since early in the game. After the Blue & Gold missed two freebies, the Tigers went on an 8-0 run to never trail again. A banked in three from Wahoo redshirt senior Winston Cook with 1:01 left made it 43-42 and setup the finish. "Obviously, we tried to get Darrian the ball (at the end) but their player (Jonsson) made a good play on it," said Lofton. Besides Kaleb Hammeke, seven other Tigers were between two and nine points with Hays going just 4 of 18 from the arc and 7 of 13 at the line. Cook (13 rebounds, seven points) and Nebeker (10 points, three assists) paced the Lopers with New Zealand senior Matt Brien at five boards and four points.
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