Complete Game Notes (pdf)
Game 13: Lady Blues vs Truman
No. 9 Washburn Lady Blues (10-2, 4-0 MIAA)
vs Truman State University Bulldogs (12-2, 5-1 MIAA)
Date: Wednesday, January 16, 2013
Time: 5:30 p.m.
Location: Topeka, Kan.
Arena: Schendel Court at Lee Arena (3,904)
Radio: 580 WIBW AM with Jake Lebahn and Mark Elliott
Series Record: WU leads 41-9
Last Meeting: WU 67-59 on 02/01/12 (A)
Washburn Coach Ron McHenry: 329-67 (.831) in his 13th year at WU and overall
TSU Coach Michael Smith: 60-62 (.492) in 5th year at TSU and 162-96 (.630) overall
Micro-Blogging the Blues
(Around) 140-character or less tweets highlighting the season
Washburn jumped back into the top 10 with a No. 9 ranking in Tuesday's USA Today Sports poll.
Washburn went 3-0 during its recently-ended road trip.
Laura Kinderknecht averaged 19.3 points a game and shot .550 from the field and .500 from 3-point range. She had at least 19 points in all three games.
Washburn is 41-9 against TSU but lost at home to the Bulldogs last year for the first time since 1979-80, the first game in series history.
After this one home game, Washburn will return to the road for three more to finish a stretch of six of seven straight on the road.
The Lady Blues were picked first in the MIAA coaches and media polls after winning the regular season and conference championships last year.
Laura Kinderknecht moved to third in career 3-pointers at Washburn, now with 151. She recently passed Corkey Stiger and Laura Westling in the ranking.
Kinderknecht is fourth in the MIAA averaging 16.2 points a game and first with a 2.1 assists/turnover ratio..
She's scoring 21.3 points a game during MIAA contests and shooting 52 percent in those tow games.
Tiara George was second in the NCAA and first in the MIAA shooting .631 from the field when statistical rankings were most recently released.
Lavonda McCall is shooting .625 from the field, giving Washburn the top two shooters in the MIAA.
Head coach
Ron McHenry earned his 300th win last year and is currently 329-67 in his 13th year at Washburn.
McHenry will coach his 400th game at Washburn on January 26 at Lindenwood.
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.
Ninth-ranked Lady Blues return to Lee Arena to host Truman Wednesday
The ninth-ranked Lady Blues will return from their three-game road trip to host Truman Wednesday at 5:30 p.m. at Schendel Court in Lee Arena. The game will be carried on AM 580 WIBW with Jake Lebahn and Mark Elliott calling the action.
Washburn was perfect in its road trip and has won four straight overall. At 10-2 overall and 4-0 in the MIAA, the Lady Blues are the only undefeated team in the league.
Truman is 12-2 overall and second in the MIAA at 5-1. The Bulldogs lead the conference in total wins and have won five straight.
After the one home game against Truman, the Lady Blues will return to the road for three more, starting Saturday at 1:30 p.m. at Northeastern State.
Lady Blues jump back into top 10 in national poll
The Lady Blues jumped back into the top 10 after one week being ranked 12th with a No. 9 spot in Tuesday's USA Today Sports national poll. Washburn (10-2) beat a pair of MIAA teams last week to help lead to the jump.
The Lady Blues have been ranked in 164 of the last 165 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 118th time in the national top 10.
Additional MIAA teams in this week's ranking include No. 11 Central Missouri, No. 21 Fort Hays State and No. 24 Pittsburg State. Truman and Missouri Western received votes in this week's poll.
Kinderknecht named MIAA athlete of the week after shooting 68 percent last week
KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- Senior point guard
Laura Kinderknecht shot .680 from the field in two Washburn wins last week and was named the MIAA athlete of the week as the award was announced Monday by the conference office.
She also shot .500 from the three-point line and averaged 18.5 points a game. She went 7 for 10 from the field against Fort Hays State Thursday scoring 18 points on the evening. Against Nebraska-Kearney on Saturday she scored 18 points on 8 of 12 shooting from the field. She hit two three-pointers late in the first half to turn an eight-point lead into a 17-point advantage at the half.
Kinderknecht is Washburn's first MIAA athlete of the week honoree this year and this is the first award of her four-year career.
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.
George second in the nation and first in the MIAA shooting 63% from the field
Senior forward
Tiara George is shooting .631 from the field, second best in NCAA II and first in the MIAA. She's shot 50 percent or better in all but one game and better than 70 percent four times. George is second on the team and 14th in the MIAA scoring 11.4 points a game. She scored in double figures in the first seven games and was averaging 16.9 a game but has since been held to single digits in the last five games.
George is Washburn's leading returning scorer from last year but was scoring just 7.2 points a game in her first season at Washburn after transferring from Angelina Community College.
Lady Blues go undefeated in three-game MIAA road trip
The Lady Blues went nine games without a true road game and then had a stretch of three straight on the road that ended Saturday. Washburn went 3-0 during the stretch with a five-point win at Central Oklahoma, a three-point win at Fort Hays State and then a 29-point win at Nebraska-Kearney.
Laura Kinderknecht scored at least 19 in each of the games and averaged 19.3 points a game while shooting .550 from the field and .500 from 3-point range.
Stormye Everett scored 8.7 points a game off the bench with the third double-figure scoring game of her career with 13 at UNK.
Washburn shot 46 percent as a team and 42 percent from long range. Opponents shot 36 percent overall and 26 percent from 3-point range.
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 take to the road for three more away games, starting Saturday at 1:30 p.m. at Northeastern State. The two teams have only met once in school history, March 13, 2010, in the NCAA South Central Region second round in Canyon, Texas.
This three-game road stretch will be followed by a four-game home stand.
