Complete game notes (PDF)
Lady Blues vs Southwest Baptist
Washburn Lady Blues (5-0, 0-0 MIAA)
vs Southwest Baptist Bearcats (4-1, 0-0 MIAA)
Date: Thursday, December 6, 2012
Time: 5:30 p.m.
Location: Topeka, Kan.
Arena: Lee Arena (4,179)
Radio: Country Legends 106.9 FM with Jake Lebahn and Mark Elliott
Series Record: WU leads 34-11
Last Meeting: WU 75-49 on 02/11/12 (H)
Washburn Coach Ron McHenry: 324-65 (.833) in his 13th year at WU and overall
SBU Coach Todd Voss: 13-18 (.419) in 2nd year at SBU and 121-50 (.708) in 6th year overall
Micro-Blogging the Blues
(Around) 140-character or less tweets highlighting the season
Washburn climbed into the top 10 for the first time this year with a No. 8 ranking in Tuesday's poll. This is the 160th time in the last 161 that Washburn has been ranked.
This game wraps up a 6-game home stand to open the season. Washburn is allowing under 50 points a game in the first five (48.2) and scoring nearly 75 (74.6).
Washburn is 34-11 all-time against SBU. The Lady Blues have won 10 straight in the series and 12 straight in Lee Arena.
Washburn will take 12 days off after this game and will only play twice in the 23 days between the Washburn Thanksgiving Classic and South Point Casino Holiday Hoops Classic.
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's scored in double figures in all five games and leads the team with 17.2 points and 8.8 rebounds a game.
George and
Laura Kinderknecht have both scored in double figures in all five games this year.
Head coach
Ron McHenry earned his 300th win last year and is currently 324-65 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.
SBU game Thursday opens MIAA play and wraps up six-game home stand
The eighth-ranked Lady Blues will wrap up their six-game, season opening home stand with a 5:30 p.m. game Thursday against Southwest Baptist in Lee Arena. The game will be both teams' MIAA openers.
Washburn improved to 5-0 Monday with a 71-31 win over Benedictine while Southwest Baptist is 4-1 after defeating Illinois-Springfield, 43-34 on Saturday.
Ten of the 15 MIAA schools will start the conference season on Wednesday and Central Oklahoma against Pittsburg State will join WU and SBU as the two Thursday conference games. Missouri Southern is idle until the weekend and Washburn will be the idle MIAA team on Saturday.
The Lady Blues are led by senior forward
Tiara George with 17.2 points a game and 8.8 rebounds. She's second on the team shooting 67 percent from the field. The Bearcats are led by Jacqui Zelenka with 14.4 points and 9.2 rebounds a game and she was named the MIAA player of the week last week after netting a pair of double-doubles.
Washburn will then take 12 days off before playing in the South Point Casino Holiday Hoops Classic against a pair of ranked opponents. December 18 they play No. 6 Western Washington and the next day they play No. 24 Wisconsin-Parkside.
Lady Blues climb into top 10 for first time this year
The Lady Blues earned their first top 10 ranking this year with a spot at No. 8 in this week's USA Today Sports national poll. Washburn was 12th in last week's poll.
The Lady Blues have been ranked in 160 of the last 161 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 115th time in the national top 10.
The Lady Blues are one of nine unbeaten teams in the nation and they are the highest ranked MIAA team in the poll. Pittsburg State fell from third to 11th and Emporia State fell from 20th to 21st. Fort Hays State jumped to 17th from 23rd and Central Missouri entered the ranking at 23rd.
South Point Casino Holiday Hoops Classic opponent Western Washington is sixth and Wisconsin-Parkside is 24th. Drury, Truman and Missouri Western are all receiving votes.
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.
Strong inside game leads to five straight double-figure games for George
Washburn has played strong inside games in its first five competitions. Starting forward
Tiara George is averaging 17.2 points a game and shooting 67 percent. Overall, Washburn has scored 202 of its 302 points (.542) 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
The Lady Blues will play their first games away from home as they head to Las Vegas, Nev., for the South Point Holiday Hoops Classic. Washburn will play sixth-ranked Western Washington at 3 p.m. Central on December 18 and play No. 24 Wisconsin-Parkside at 12 p.m. the next day. The games will be played at the South Point Casino and Hotel Arena.
