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Andrew Meile and Kyle Snyder recorded career-high point totals and Snyder had his second straight double-double as the Ichabods defeated No. 15 Southwest Baptist 71-68 Wednesday in Lee Arena. The Ichabods improved to 14-8 overall and moved into a four-way tie for fifth place in the MIAA at 6-7. The Bearcats fell to 17-5 and dropped into a tie for first in the conference at 10-3.

Washburn will head to Truman for a 3 p.m. game Saturday with the Bulldogs before returning home to play three straight in Lee Arena.

The two seniors combined to shoot 71 percent as Snyder was 8 of 9 for 19 points and Meile was 7 of 12 for 25 points, the highest single-game total for an Ichabod this year. Grant Hargett also reached double figures with 12 points.

After missing his first free throw with 57 seconds left, Meile sunk the next one to give WU a five point lead. The Bearcats answered with a layup from Nick Kovacevich with 40 seconds to pull his team within three points.

The Ichabods ran the shot clock down as far as they could on the next possession and Paul Byers fired off a shot that missed with six seconds left in the game. After a scramble for the ball he got his own rebound and the Bearcats were unable to foul him before the buzzer sounded.

The Ichabods won consecutive games for the first time since winning eight straight early in the year and they broke a four-game winning streak for the Bearcats.

WU answered a poor 35 percent shooting effort in the first half with a 48 percent effort in the second half. The Ichabods ended the night shooting 41 percent while SBU, the MIAA's leading shooting team, shot just 38 percent in the game.

Washburn led by five at halftime and built the lead to a game-high 13 points, 45-32 at 13:52 of the second half. Two minutes later Snyder hit a layup to give WU a 10-point lead but the Bearcats answered with a 10-0 run to tie the score.

Snyder drained a 3-pointer to break the nearly four-minute scoreless drought and then after a miss by SBU's Matthew Rogers Hargett hit a 3 to give WU a 56-50 lead.

The Bearcats clawed within four points after that but a dunk at 2:07 by Byers on a pass from Mario Scott gave Washburn another 10-point lead.

The Ichabods were able to break SBU's full court press late in the game and had a chance to secure a comfortable win but missed four free throws in the final two minutes.

The Ichabods led the rebound battle 42-36 behind Snyder's career-high 14, including 10 defensive rebounds.

Meile hit a career-high six 3-pointers while Scott led the offense with five assists.

Kovacevich led SBU with 15 points off 6-of-13 shooting.


Notes
• In the 29th meeting between the two schools Washburn improved to 26-13 and broke a five-game losing streak against the Bearcats. WU improved to 14-3 against SBU in Lee Arena.
• Andrew Meile and Grant Hargett started at guard for Washburn while Paul Byers, Kyle Snyder and Darnell Kimble started at forward. This is the first time this combination has been used and the eighth different starting lineup of the year. Meile and Byers have started all 22 games and Meile has started 62 straight games. His last non-start was December 30, 2005 at Truman. Kimble made his 10th start, Hargett started for the eighth time and Snyder made his sixth start.
• The win was the first mid-week MIAA win of the season. WU was previously 0-6 on Tuesday and Wednesday games.
• Washburn improved to 12-0 when leading at the half, 11-1 when leading with five minutes remaining and 9-1 at home.
• Meile scored a career-high 25 points off a career-high six 3-pointers. His previous high for points was 20 at Central Missouri on February 25, 2006 and his previous 3-point total was five, set three times in his career.
• Snyder scored a career-high 19 points and tied a career high with eight field goals. His previous point high was 18 against Kansas Wesleyan on November 22, 2003 and his previous field goal total of eight also came against KWU in 2003.
• Snyder had his second straight double-double, the third of this year and fifth of his career. He tied a season high with 14 rebounds.
• Meile's two steals gives him 101 in his career and makes him the 12th Ichabod to reach 100 steals.
• Meile's point total of 25 is the most this year for an Ichabod. The previous high was 22 by Angel Santiago on January 5 against Central Missouri.
• Washburn improved to 3-1 against ranked teams this year.
• The Washburn bench scored just seven points off 2-of-15 shooting from the field. The Ichabod bench had been averaging 35.8 points a game beforehand.