South Point Holiday Hoops Schedule (all times Pacific)
Complete Game Notes (PDF)
No. 7 Lady Blues at the South Point Casino Holiday Hoops Classic
Location: Las Vegas, Nev.
Arena: South Point Casino Arena (4,400)
vs No. 21 Western Washington Vikings (6-2)
Date: Tuesday, December 18, 2012
Time: 5:00 p.m. Central (3:00 p.m. Pacific)
Radio: Country Legends 106.9 FM
vs No. 25 Wisconsin-Parkside Rangers (4-1)
Date: Wednesday, December 19, 2012
Time: 12:00 p.m. Central (10:00 a.m. Pacific)
Radio: 580 WIBW AM
Washburn Coach Ron McHenry: 325-65 (.833) in his 13th year at WU and overall
Micro-Blogging the Blues
(Around) 140-character or less tweets highlighting the season
Washburn climbed one more spot in the national poll with a No. 7 ranking in the December 12 poll. This is the 161st time in the last 162 that Washburn has been ranked.
These will be Washburn's first games away from home after starting the year 6-0 in Lee Arena. Washburn allowed just 51.0 points a game and averaged 74.0 as a team in those six games.
Washburn is 1-2 all-time against WWU with a 2OT win in Las Vegas in 2009. The Lady Blues and UWP have never played.
The Lady Blues are 6-0 in three different events in Las Vegas, the last in 2009-10.
Washburn will take 13 days off after this game for the semester break and then play Emporia State at home in a non-conference game on January 2.
The games in Las Vegas are the only non-conference games Washburn has away from home this year.
The Lady Blues were picked first in the MIAA coaches and media polls after winning the regular season and conference championships last year.
Tiara George had her first career double-double with 22 points and 14 rebounds Nov. 24 against ATU. Both of those totals were career highs. She then against another 2X-2X Dec. 6 against Southwest Baptist.
She's scored in double figures in all six games and leads the team with 17.0 points and 9.2 rebounds a game.
George and
Laura Kinderknecht have both scored in double figures in all six games this year.
Head coach
Ron McHenry earned his 300th win last year and is currently 325-65 in his 13th year at Washburn.
McHenry has 7 MIAA regular season titles and 7 MIAA tournament championships to go along with NCAA tournament appearances in all but his 1st season, including a 2004-05 national title.
No. 7 Lady Blues head to Vegas to take on a pair of ranked teams
The seventh-ranked Lady Blues will play their first action away from Lee Arena as they head to Las Vegas, Nev., for the South Point Casino Holiday Hoops Classic Tuesday and Wednesday.
Washburn (6-0) will play No. 21 Western Washington Tuesday at 3 p.m. Central (5 p.m. Pacific) and then play No. 25 Wisconsin-Parkside Wednesday at noon (10 a.m. Pacific). Both games will take place in the South Point Casino Arena.
The Lady Blues started the year with six straight wins at home including a 71-65 win in double-overtime against Southwest Baptist on December 6 to open MIAA play.
Western Washington (6-2) was also undefeated at 6-0 and ranked sixth in the nation before falling twice, December 7-8 at the West Region Crossover Classic. Wisconsin-Parkside is 4-1 after a 100-28 win December 8 against Finlandia.
Western Washington will play Grand Canyon Wednesday afternoon after playing Washburn while UWP will play Grand Canyon on Tuesday before facing Washburn on Wednesday.
The Lady Blues will then take a 13-day holiday and semester break before resuming action January 2 against Emporia State at 7 p.m. in Lee Arena. That game will be a non-conference contest.
Lady Blues climb to No. 7 in latest poll
The Lady Blues moved up a spot to No. 7 from No. 8 in the December 12 USA Today Sports national poll. Washburn will face No. 21 Western Washington and No. 25 Wisconsin-Parkside next week in Las Vegas.
The Lady Blues have been ranked in 161 of the last 162 polls, dating back to week three of the 2002-03 season. The final poll of the 2010-11 season was the last time Washburn was not ranked. This is Washburn's 116th time in the national top 10.
The Lady Blues are one of 20 unbeaten teams in the nation and they are the highest ranked MIAA team in the poll. Other MIAA schools in the top 25 include Fort Hays State at No. 11 and Pittsburg State at No. 18. Both Central Missouri and Emporia State dropped out of the top 25 this week.
MIAA media and coaches pick Lady Blues to repeat as champions
KANSAS CITY, Mo. – The Lady Blues got more than half the MIAA coaches' top votes and won a close vote in the media poll as they were picked to finish first in both tallies during the preseason MIAA Virtual Media Day.
Washburn got eight of the 15 first-place votes from the coaches and eight of the 18 in the media poll. Pittsburg State was picked second in both polls with the Gorillas coming just three points short of the Lady Blues in the media poll.
Washburn won the MIAA last year with an 18-2 record. The Gorillas went 17-3. Pittsburg State took six first-place votes from the coaches and No. 3 Emporia State took the other. From the media, PSU tied Washburn with eight top votes and ESU, also third in that poll, took two.
MIAA newcomer Northeastern State was fourth in both polls followed by Fort Hays State and Central Missouri.
Lady Blues making fourth trip to Las Vegas
Washburn is 6-0 in three previous trips to Las Vegas for games. The Lady Blues beat Western Washington, 72-70 in overtime and Central Washington, 76-44 in their last trip in 2009-10 for the Great Western Shootout. They also went in 2003-04 and 2005-06 for the South Central Challenge.
Laura Kinderknecht and
Dana Elliott both played in the 2009-10 games. Kinderknecht played in both with eight points against Central Washington and none against WWU. Elliott played five minutes against UCW without a point.
Strong inside game leads to six straight double-figure games for George
Washburn started the year by playing a strong inside game and it has allowed senior forward
Tiara George to score in double figures in every game. George is averaging 17.0 points a game to lead the team and shooting 65 percent from the field. Overall, Washburn has scored 238 of its 444 points (.536) in the paint.
Everybody plays, everybody scores
All 13 Lady Blues in uniform got into the game and scored in the season-opening 92-52 win over Southwestern on November 14. Junior transfers
Lavonda McCall and
Bianca Fennessee, as well as freshmen
Haley Pfau,
Jordan Baldwin and
Jordan Kramer all scored their first points as Lady Blues.
Seniors
Sierra Moeller and
Sami McHenry did not suit up for the game. Moeller is sitting this semester to save her final semester of eligibility for the spring and McHenry just finished her junior year with the Lady Blues volleyball team last week. She rejoined that basketball team Monday against Benedictine.
Seven seniors return to lead Washburn
Seven seniors return to this year's team and among them are three four-year players:
Dana Elliott,
Laura Kinderknecht and
Laura McMullin. Two-year player
Sami McHenry will play this year as her final while
Stormye Everett,
Sierra Moeller and
Tiara George were all junior transfers last year.
Moeller is the leading returning rebounder with 6.7 a game last year but she will have to sit the first semester to save her final semester of eligibility. George is the leading returning scorer with 6.0 points a game. Kinderknecht scored 5.8 and Elliott scored 4.8 a game.
Coming Up Next
After taking 13 days off for the holidays and semester break, the Lady Blues will return to Lee Arena for a non-conference game against Emporia State, January 2 at 7 p.m. Because of expansion in the MIAA this year that added four teams, the Lady Blues and Lady Hornets will only play one conference game, a February 27 contest in Emporia. This home game will keep alive a streak of playing each other twice every year since 1995-96.
