Box Score | Season Stats

ST. JOSEPH, Mo. – The No. 4 Washburn Lady Blues were held scoreless for the first 6:48 of the game falling behind 11-0 and by as many as 13-2 in the opening period, but they rallied to knock off the Griffons 65-52 in their MIAA opener in St. Joseph in the Lady Blues' 999th game in school history. Washburn will play their first home game since Nov. 26 when they take on Central Missouri (5-5, 0-1 MIAA) at 5:30 p.m. on Jan. 5 in Lee Arena.
After the Griffons jumped out to a 11-0 lead as Washburn (9-1, 1-0 MIAA) missed its first eight shots from the field, Regiane Araujo put the Lady Blues on the board with a lay-up at the 13:12 mark of the half.
The Griffons would lead by as many as 11 on two different occasions before Washburn would tie the score at 21 on a Kalee Silovsky bucket 3:21 before the half. Missouri Western would regain the lead at 25-23, but Washburn scored 7 of the final 9 points of the half to take a 30-27 lead into the break.
In the second half, Washburn pushed the lead to as many as 17 in the second half as Corkey Stiger scored 14 of her game-high 22 points in the second half as she hit 5 of 9 from the field including 4 of 7 from 3-point range. She also added seven rebounds in the second half with two assists and two steals in the final 20 minutes.
With Washburn holding a 37-36 lead with 13:47 left in the game, Stiger would hit back to back 3-pointers pushing the lead back to seven. After a Janice Bright lay-up, Stiger added another three increading the lead to nine at 48-39.
Washburn held the Griffons to 8 of 27 from the field for a 30 percent clip and 18 of 56 from the field (32 percent).
Joining Stiger in double-figure scoring was Amanda Holmes, who had 11 points and eight rebounds and Araujo had a career-high 10 points on 5 of 7 shooting.
Jill Johnson led the Griffons with 17 points.
Washburn held a 42 to 34 advantage on the glass as their bench outscored the Griffon bench 24 to 5.

Notes: Washburn is now 36-37 all-time against the Griffons … Washburn improved to 12-6 all-time in MIAA openers … Washburn is now 678-321 all-time in 999 games as their 1,000th game will be against Central Missouri on Saturday … Ron McHenry is now 197-38 all-time in his eighth season at Washburn … the seven free throw attempts against the Griffons tied a season-low … the six 3-pointers by Corkey Stiger were an individual high for the Lady Blues this season … Kalee Silovsky had a career-high in rebounds with nine … Stiger has led the Lady Blues in scoring in the last seven games … the 37 minutes played by Jessica Mainz tied a career-high for the fourth time.