Complete game notes

Washburn looks to avenge loss to Lions from Jan. 30th in Topeka . . . 
The Washburn Lady Blues (15-4, 7-3 MIAA) will take on the Missouri Southern in a rematch from one week ago as they travel to Joplin, Mo., to battle the Lions. Washburn is in a three-way tie for first in the MIAA race and the Lions (15-4, 6-4 MIAA) are in a two-way tie for fourth. The Lady Blues are sharing the league-lead with Emporia State and Southwest Baptist and the Lions are knotted with Northwest Missouri. The Lady Blues rebounded from their loss to Missouri Southern with a 68-44 win over Missouri Western and the Lions topped Truman in overtime 77-71 on Feb. 2. Following the game with the Lions, Washburn will return home to face Pittsburg State on Feb. 9 as part of five of their final seven games in Lee Arena.

Quick Facts
Matchup: Washburn (15-4, 7-3 MIAA) vs Missouri Southern (15-4, 6-4 MIAA)
Date: Wednesday, Feb. 6
Time: 5:30 p.m. CST
Site: Joplin, Mo. -- Leggett & Platt Athletic Center (3,240)
Radio: AM580 WIBW / Topeka with play by play with Mark Elliott and Bruce Steinbrock
Online Audio: Through wusports.com (free)
Online Video: Through themiaa.tv ($5.50)
Live Stats: Through Missouri Southern
Coaches: Washburn head coach Ron McHenry is 203-41 (.832) in his eighth season - McHenry is 11-4 against Missouri Southern.
Missouri Southern head coach Maryann Mitts is 113-75 (.600) in her seventh season at MSSU. She is 196-131 in her 12th overall. Mitts is 4-19 vs WU as a head coach going 2-10 at MSSU and 2-9 at Rockhurst.
Rankings: Washburn is ranked No. 12 in the WBCA/USA Today/ESPN Coaches Poll.

Lady Blues on radio . . .
The Lady Blues game with Missouri Southern will be broadcast live on AM 580 WIBW with Mark Elliott calling the action and Bruce Steinbrock providing color commentary. The games will also be streamed live online by clicking the live audio button under Lady Blues Basketball on the WU web site at www.wusports.com.

The coaches . . .
Washburn head coach Ron McHenry has posted a 203-41 (.832) record overall and 105-29 (.788) record in the MIAA with four MIAA regular season championships from 2003-06 and the 2005 NCAA National Championship. McHenry has the highest winning percentage (.832) in MIAA history of coaches who have at least 200 wins.
He was named the Lady Blues head coach prior to the 2000-01 season. He is second among active women's NCAA Division II Coaches in winning percentage. McHenry was named the MIAA's Coach of the Year in 2005 and in 2006 and the Division II Bulletin National Coach of the Year in 2005. (complete bio on page 2 of notes.)
Missouri Southern head coach Maryann Mitts has compiled a 113-75 (.600) record in her seventh season with the Lions. She holds a 196-131 (.599) mark now in her 12th year as a collegiate head coach. Mitts is 4-19 overall against Washburn going 3-10 at Missouri Southern and 1-9 while the coach at her alma mater Rockhurst.

Last Time Out for the Lady Blues . . .
Feb. 2, 2008 - No. 12 Washburn 68, Missouri Western 44 • TOPEKA, Kan. -- The 12th-ranked Washburn Lady Blues used a 14-4 first-half run to get control moved on to a 68-44 victory over Missouri Western Saturday night in Lee Arena. Washburn will be in action on Wednesday, Feb. 6 in Joplin, Mo., to take on Missouri Southern for the second time in a week. The Lions defeated the Lady Blues on Jan. 30 in Topeka 69-61.
The Lady Blues (15-4, 7-3 MIAA) secured the win by holding the Griffons (9-9, 4-6 MIAA) without a field goal for more than nine minutes in the second half.
Washburn never trailed in the game, but Western would score six straight points, with Megan Gawatz's three-pointer knotting the game at 12-12 with 13:34 left in the opening half.
Kalee Silovsky broke the tie on the next trip downcourt for WU, sparking the deciding outburst. Jessica Mainz capped the run with another trey and made it 26-16 with 5:09 left in the half.
A three by Yanique Javois made it a seven-point game, but Washburn finished on an 11-2 run to take a 37-21 halftime lead. Janice Bright had two three-pointer in the last three minutes of the half.
After Javois' jumper at the 12:43 mark made it 54-30, the Griffons missed their next nine from the field and had two turnovers while making 7-of-7 from the foul line.
Javois finally broke the dry spell with a jumper with 3:04 remaining. She ended up as the only Griffon in double-figure scoring with 16 points. Western was 4-of-21 (19.0 percent) from the field in the second half, but made 14-of-16 (87.5 percent) at the charity stripe in the period.
Bright and Corkey Stiger each had 14 points for Washburn, while Mainz added 13. Bright had five assists, while Stiger added four. Hope Gregory had 10 rebounds, one shy of a career-high.

Notes from the Missouri Western game . . .
Lady Blues are now 8-4 on Groundhog Day ... Washburn has tied the series with Missouri Western at 37-37 ... Washburn has won three straight in the series with the Griffons ... the 11 field goal attempts by Jessica Mainz is a career high ... the Lady Blues are 3-0 this season when following a loss and 30-10 under head coach Ron McHenry ... the Lady Blues avoided losing back to back home games for the first time since the 2000-01 season when Washburn lost three straight to Pittsburg State, Missouri Western and Pittsburg State.

Washburn/Missouri Southern series notes . . .
Wednesday's meeting will be the 62nd in the series. Washburn leads the all-time series 37-24. Washburn had its five-game winning streak in the series snapped on Jan. 30 in Topeka. Washburn has won 11 of the last 14 meetings and 15 of the last 19 meetings. Washburn has won the last two in Joplin and they had their 11-game winning streak snapped in Topeka on Jan. 30 in the loss to the Lions.
 
Last Meeting Between Washburn and Missouri Western . . .
(Jan. 30, 2008) TOPEKA, Kan. -- The No. 12 Washburn Lady Blues dropped a 69-61 decision to Missouri Southern Jan. 30 in Lee Arena. The loss snapped a 17-game winning streak for the Lady Blues and placed them in a four-way tie for first place in the conference standings with Northwest Missouri, Southwest Baptist and Emporia State. The Lady Blues will look to rebound on Saturday when they play host to Missouri Western at 5:30 p.m. in Lee Arena.
The Lions, who entered the game No. 6 in the South Central Regional Poll which was released today, led from start to finish over the No. 2 regionally ranked Lady Blues, opened the game on a 19 to 8 run over the first 9:23 of the game. The Lions would increase the lead to as many as 12 in the half before Washburn rallied to cut the lead to six at 34-28 going into halftime.
In the second half, Washburn could not get any closer than six as the Lions built a lead as many as 19 at 53-34 with 11:32 remaining cruising to the win.
Corkey Stiger led Washburn with a game-high 23 points. Also in double figures were Jessica Mainz with 11 and Amanda Holmes with 10.
Tynesha Pierce paced four Lions in double figures with 17 points.
The Lions finished the game shooting 25 of 47 from the field for a 53 percent clip becoming the first team in 89 games to hit better than half its shots in a game against Washburn. The last time a team shot at least 50 percent was Angelo State on March 12, 2005 in the NCAA Regional Tournament.
Washburn finished the game 18 of 50 from the field and was outrebounded 30 to 28.
 
About Missouri Southern . . .
Missouri Southern enters the game with an overall record of 15-4, 6-4 in the MIAA. MSSU started the season 9-0 and were ranked as high as No. 16 in the country.
The Lions are led in scoring this season by Fatai Hala 'Api 'Api, who averages 11.9 points per game.
Tynesha Pierce is the second leading scorer for the Lions at 11.7 points per game. She is averaging 13.2 ppg in MIAA play.
India Wood leads the team in assists per game with 4.1 per game. As a team, the Lions rank ninth in the MIAA in scoring at 67.8 points per game but are third in the MIAA in the scoring margin category at +11.1. Missouri Southern leads the MIAA in field-goal percentage defense at 34.1 percent. Missouri Southern is second in the league behind the Lady Blues in scoring defense allowing 56.7 ppg.

Last time out for the Lions . . .
(Feb. 2, 2008) --  Joplin, Mo. -- The Missouri Southern Lions out-scored the Truman Bulldogs 10-4 in the extra period to defeat the Truman Bulldogs 77-71 in overtime Saturday afternoon (Feb. 2) at the Leggett & Platt Athletic Center.
The victory is the Lions' sixth in seven games in the MIAA and puts them at 15-4 overall and 6-4 in the conference.  The Bulldogs fall to 13-6 overall and 5-5 in the MIAA.
Senior India Wood continued her stellar play MIAA games by hitting the go-ahead three-pointer with 2:10 left in the overtime period to put the Lions ahead for good 73-71.
After the Lions forced the Bulldogs into consecutive misses and a turnover, Danielle DeVader and Ela Zawadka each hit a pair of free throws to close out the win.
Things appeared difficult for the Lions late in regulation after Georgia Mueller hit two from the charity stripe to give the Bulldogs a 67-64 advantage with 2:00 remaining in the second half.  But DeVader hit a huge trey that tied the score with 59 seconds left for the final points of regulation.
The Lions trailed 32-27 at the half but Tynesha Pierce scored eight points to spark a 15-5 second-half opening run that put the Lions up 42-37 with 14:23 remaining.
Truman answered with a 10-2 run capped off by a three from Carmen McGee that put the Bulldogs up 47-44.
Southern continued the back-and-forth spurts and took a 55-49 lead as DeVader knocked in a pair of threes to lead an 11-2 Lion run over a span of 2:57.
The Bulldogs led throughout the first half and jumped out to a 12-4 early advantage on a layup from Mueller.
Katie Fowler hit two free throws to give Truman their biggest lead of the half at 21-8 with 10:07 left in the first half.
The Lions trailed 26-14 before out-scoring the Bulldogs 13-6 over the final 6:07 of the opening half to cut the lead to five.
Wood was the Lions' high-scorer in an MIAA win for the fourth time already, scoring 17 and dishing out a team-high five assists.  Pierce scored 12 and DeVader had 11 including tying for the team-lead with nine rebounds.  Zawadka scored 10 and also had nine boards.
Mueller paced the Bulldogs with a game-high 29 points and led Truman with eight rebounds.  Fowler also scored in double-figures with 10.

Lady Blues player Notes . . .
#; Name; Pos; HT; Class; PPG; RPG; APG; Notes
#3; Brette Ulsaker; G; 5-9; So.; 2.9; 2.3; 1.8; Missed third straight game with stress fracture in her foot against MWSU.
#4; Amanda Holmes; F; 6-2; Sr.; 9.8; 7.8; 1.3; Moved into fourth on all-time block chart with her 94th against MWSU.
#11; Renata Germano; C; 6-2; Jr.; 2.4; 2.5; 0.3; Moved into 27th on the all-time block chart with her 19th at SBU.
#13; Jessica Mainz; G; 5-9; Jr.; 5.7; 3.8; 3.4; 11 FGA's, 2 3-FG's, 6 3FGA's all career highs set against MWSU.
#14; Alyssa Mullen; F; 5-11; Fr.; 1.7; 1.1; 0.4; 16 minutes and 6 FGA's were career highs set against MWSU.
#20; Hadleigh Meek; G; 5-8; Fr.; 1.4; 0.3; 0.4; 9 of 10 from the free throw line this season.
#21; Corkey Stiger; G; 5-9; Sr.; 16.7; 4.1; 2.9; Needs two more 3-pointers for 100 for career.
#23; Jacki Tipping; G; 5-10; So.; 0.7; 0.2; 0.0; Career high 4 points against Truman hitting both field goal attempts.
#24; Karla Tailele; G; 5-6; Rs-Jr.; 5.6; 1.4; 0.7; 12 of 31 from 3-point land in MIAA play (.387).
#30; Kalee Silovsky; F; 6-0; Jr.; 2.4; 2.5; 0.7; Hit 4 of 6 3-pointers in MIAA play - 6 of 10 overall.
#32; Janice Bright; G; 5-9; Jr.; 10.5; 4.8; 1.7; Has hit last 14 free throws.
#33; Hope Gregory; G; 5-10; Rs-Fr.; 3.7; 3.9; 0.7; 10 rebounds one shy of career high 11 set against Texas A&M-Commerce.
#44; Emily Gibson; F; 6-1; Fr.; 1.7; 0.8; 0.2; 6 of 10 from the field this season.
#50; Regiane Araujo; C; 6-4; Jr.; 5.6; 2.7; 0.3; Averaging 6.4 ppg in MIAA play hitting 27 of 50 from the field (.540).

Lady Blues in Lee Arena . . .
In their 24th season in Lee Arena, the Lady Blues are 296-56 (.841) overall at home.
The longest winning streak was 44 games from Dec. 1, 1990 to March 20, 1993.
The Lady Blues have won 35 straight regular season non-conference games in Lee Arena. The last defeat by a non-conference team in the regular season was to Missouri-St. Louis in a 59-51 setback on Dec. 30, 2000.
Washburn is 104-10 (.912) in home games under Ron McHenry.

Lady Blues history . . .
Washburn is 686-324 (.680 in 1,010 games) in its 38th season of intercollegiate action.

WU in the national poll . . .
(Jan. 29) The Washburn Lady Blues fell from eighth to No. 12 in the latest USA Today/ESPN Division II Top 25 Coaches Poll which was released today. The poll marked the first time since the final poll of the 2003-04 season Washburn has not been in the top 10 when they were ranked No. 17. Washburn was preseason No. 9 in the 2004-05 coaches poll and have been in the top 10 in the last 57 polls. Overall, Washburn has received votes in the last 103 consecutive polls and has been in the top 25 in 87 consecutive polls. Washburn was ranked No. 6 in the preseason poll which was released on Oct. 31. The Lady Blues were ranked No. 8 in the final poll of the 2007-08 season after finishing with a 29-4 overall record.

Lady Blues Individual Tip Ins . . .
• Corkey Stiger moved into seventh all-time at Washburn in 3-pointers with 98. She needs 11 more to move into sixth place all-time.
• Stiger's 300 3-point attempts is fifth all-time.
• Amanda Holmes is 13th all-time with 225 free throws made and 11th in free throw attempts with 332.
• Holmes is 13th all-time in rebounds at Washburn with 537.
• Holmes' 94 career blocked shots is fourth all-time at Washburn needing eight to move into sole possession of third place.
• After scoring 13 points in the first 16 games of the season including five DNP's - Alyssa Mullen has scored 11 in the last three games.
• Jessica Mainz is 10 of 13 from the free throw line in the last three games.

Lady Blues Team Tip Ins . . .
• The Lady Blues have held their opponents under 100 points in 270 consecutive games.
• Washburn is averaging 68.5 ppg in MIAA play.
• The Washburn bench is outscoring their opponents this season 417-273.
• For only the second time this season, the Lady Blues were outscored in the paint by Missouri Southern (30-26).
• In the last five minutes of games, Washburn is being outscored by their opponents 187 to 186.
• The +22 rebound margin over Missouri Western was the Lady Blues largest all season.

Up Next . . .
Following the game with the Lions on Feb. 6 in Joplin, Washburn will then finish the MIAA slate with five of seven games in Lee Arena beginning with Pittsburg State on Feb. 9 in a game which will be broadcast on KTWU beginning at 5:30 p.m.