Box Score | Season Stats

HAYS, Kan. – The No. 8 Washburn Lady Blues rebounded from its first MIAA loss of the season and head coach Ron McHenry picked up his 200th win on the Lady Blues bench in a 70-53 win over Fort Hays State. Coupled with a one-point loss by Northwest Missouri, the Lady Blues have moved back into a first place tie with the Bearcats and with Southwest Baptist. Washburn will play host to Truman at 1:30 p.m. in Lee Arena on Saturday afternoon.
Washburn (12-2, 4-1 MIAA) trailed early 4-0 and 9-5 and 11-7 to the Lady Tigers (7-7, 1-4 MIAA) before taking for good at the 13:22 mark of the first half on a Regiane Araujo lay up putting Washburn up 14-13. Washburn stretched the lead to nine after back-to-back jumpers by Corkey Stiger with 8:07 left in the first half.
The Lady Blues would lead by as many as 15 in the half before taking a 40-27 lead into the break.
In the second half, Washburn pulled out to a 15-point lead midway through the period and finished with a 17-point win while topping Fort Hays State for the ninth straight time.
Stiger led a trio of Lady Blues with 20 points on 8 of 12 shooting. She scored 14 in the first half on 5 of 6 shooting from the field.
Araujo scored a career-high 12 points on 6 of 9 shooting and Karla Tailele had 11 points hitting 3 of 6 3-pointers.
Hope Gregory led the Lady Blues with five rebounds.
Naomi Bancroft led the Lady Tigers with 15 points.
Washburn held Fort Hays State to 22 of 58 from the field (38 percent) while the Lady Blues shot over 50 percent for the second time this season hitting 26 of 49 attempts from the field.

Notes: The Lady Blues improved to 34-25 all-time against Fort Hays State winning the ninth straight game in the series … Ron McHenry is now 200-39 all-time in his eighth season at Washburn … Washburn is now 28-10 following a loss under McHenry … Washburn is now 681-322 in 1,003 games all-time … the Lady Blues will take on Truman on Saturday in only their second home game since Nov. 26 … under McHenry, Washburn improves to 59-2 all-time when shooting 50 percent or better … Washburn won their ninth straight game in Hays … the .531 shooting percentage was the Lady Blues best performance this season … the 49 field goal attempts was the lowest mark by the Lady Blues this season ... the 29 rebounds were also the lowest total by Washburn this season – six below the previous low of 35 against Evangel on Nov. 26.