Box Score | Season Stats

ST. JOSEPH, Mo. -- The No. 2 ranked Washburn Lady Blues broke open a tie game at the half with a 15-1 run to begin the second stanza in a 63-55 win over Missouri Western. The Lady Blues improved to 11-0 and 4-0 in the MIAA while the Griffons fell to 0-10 and 0-4 in MIAA play. Washburn will play host to Fort Hays State on New Year's Eve with a 1:30 p.m. tip off.

Coming out of the break, Washburn built their lead to 17 at 43-26 with 11:14 to go in the game. Janice Bright scored seven points during the second half surge. A 10-run by the Griffons cut the lead to seven over the next two-plus minutes. The Lady Blues' Stanecia Graham stopped the Washburn drought with a jumper in the paint.

The Griffons then cut the lead down to five at 53-48 with 4:31 to go, but a lay up by Bright and a 3-pointer by Jessica Mainz pushed the lead back to 10. After a Griffon jumper Hope Gregory hit a 3-pointer from the corner and Mainz hit a pair of free throws with 52 seconds left to wrap up the scoring for the Lady Blues.

Washburn took an early 2-0 lead in the first half as the Lady Blues' Stanecia Graham scored the first points of the game, but did not score again until just under two minutes left in the half.

The Lady Blues  trailed by as many as seven in the first half as they were an arctic-like 6 of 32 from the field (.188) including a 1 of 15 (.067) from 3-point range. Washburn did go 8 of 11 (.727) from the free throw line. The six field goals in the first tied the fewest in a half since the Lady Blues hit six against Cameron Dec. 18, 2007 in the Cruzin' Classic.

Graham and Bright each scored 13 to lead the Lady Blues and Mainz added a season-high 10 points.

Rachel Luteyn led the Griffons with 13 points.

Washburn finished 20 of 60 from the field (.333) and 18 of 24 from the free throw line (.750). Missouri Western was held to 22 of 55 shooting (.400) and was 7 of 13 (.538) from the charity stripe.

Washburn outrebounded the Griffons 46 to 33. The Lady Blues also had 19 rebounds on the offensive glass leading to 12 second-chance points.

Mainz had three assists and three steals to lead Washburn.

Notes:
* Washburn leads the all-time series with the Griffons 39-37 and have won the last five games.
* Overall in the series, Washburn has won 15 of the last 17 games in the series.
* Washburn is now 7-4 under head coach Ron McHenry when tied at the half.
* Washburn has kept opponents under 100 points in 295 consecutive games.
* Washburn is 157-14 with McHenry on the sidelines and opponents are held to under 60 points.
* Ron McHenry is 15-9 against the Griffons.
* All-time Washburn is 136-46 in the month of December.
* Under McHenry, Washburn is 47-4 in the month of December.
* Washburn is 706-327 all-time in the program's 40th year of competition.