The Lincoln men's basketball team made it a goal early in the season to be peaking in February.
Despite some recent struggles, the Blue Tigers are still set on accomplishing that.
"To (the player's) credit, they've continued to compete every day," Lincoln head coach John Moseley said Saturday after the Blue Tigers suffered a 62-45 Mid-America Intercollegiate Athletics Association loss to Fort Hays State at Jason Gym. "There's no doubt about it, we're in a bit of a drought right now, but we're going to continue to work every day."
After staying within striking distance for the first 25 minutes, Lincoln (4-12, 1-6 MIAA) found itself trying to play catchup midway through the second half when Fort Hays State (9-6, 3-4 MIAA) used a 19-2 run to take a 21-point lead with 7:47 to play before handing the Blue Tigers their sixth straight loss.
"We've played teams pretty well for a period of time and then we hit a lull where teams are able to gain some separation on us and we are unable to recover from that," Moseley said. "Even tonight I thought for a long time we were right there neck and neck with them. I thought we defended in the first half about as well as we've defended for the year."
Lincoln trailed the Tigers 29-23 at halftime and stayed within single digits for the first seven minutes of the second half before things fell apart.
"I felt like we just had a lull," Lincoln senior Joshua Buie said. "I think we forgot what we were doing at one point. I think we just have to stay focused through the hard times. When things don't go our way, we've just got to stay tough."
Malcolm McDonald scored a game-high 21 points and Buie chipped in with 13 to lead Lincoln, which was 15-of-36 (42 percent) from the field and finished with 17 turnovers.
Achoki Moikobu finished with 15 points and Dom Samac added 12 to lead the Tigers, who were 24-of-58 from the field to go along with seven turnovers and a 31-28 rebounding advantage.
"Turnovers have been one of our Achilles' heel this year," Moseley said. "Our goal is 12 or less and I don't think we've had a game in a week and a half where we've had 12 or less. We shot a well enough percentage (from the field) to have it be a much closer ballgame, but we're not getting shot attempts because we're giving the ball up."
After scoring 50 points last week in a loss to Pittsburg State, Lincoln was held to its lowest point total of the season while the Tigers were able to snap a two-game skid.
"We just could not score the basketball, which is something I think this team has done a decent job of for the most part," Moseley said. "Some of it, I've got to credit (Fort Hays State's) defense and some of it - we got away from executing. When we execute, we get good looks.
"We don't always make the shots, but we get good looks. When we have to try to make stuff happen on our own, to me it gets pretty ugly for us."
Lincoln trailed by seven with 3:36 to play in the first half, but went on a 6-0 run to cut it to one with 1:55 before Fort Hays State could convert on a layup and hit a 3-pointer with 50 second left to take a six-point cushion into the break.
The Blue Tigers pulled within four again after a layup by McDonald with 14:49 to play, but the Blue Tigers didn't score again until Mike Smith hit a free throw with 9:01 left. By that time, Lincoln had dug itself into a 15-point hole.
"They played solid defense throughout the entire game," McDonald said. "They played consistent the entire 40 minutes and we didn't. We just have to stick together and keep playing."
The Blue Tigers know their schedule doesn't get any easier with upcoming matchups against Missouri Southern, Central Missouri and Southwest Baptist, but they are still confident they can make strides before the end of the season.
"It's hard to see if you're just a person at home and you look at our scores - you think, hey Lincoln is struggling again," Moseley said. "But we've had a lot of good things happen during games - especially conference games."
Lincoln's next test will come at 3:30 p.m. Saturday against Missouri Southern at Jason Gym.
"We're all positive," Buie said. "We all believe in each other. We believe in what we're supposed to do and what Lincoln is all about and restoring the glory back to this university. We've just got to keep moving forward. We still feel that we'll be a better team in February than we are now."
Added McDonald: "With this being like the middle of the season, it's very important that we stick together and just try to stay gelled as a team. If one person breaks or the unit breaks then it can snowball and can have a drastic effect on us. Six losses could turn into more."