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Washburn University Ichabods (1-1, 0-0 MIAA) |
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vs Ouachita Baptist Tigers (0-1, 0-0 GAC) |
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Game Notes |
Download PDF |
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Date |
Saturday, November 16, 2013 |
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Time |
2:00 p.m. |
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Location |
Jessieville, Ark. |
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Arena |
Jessieville Sports Arena |
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Radio |
94.5 FM WIBW with Ryan Elder |
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Follow |
www.wusports.com/live (stats, audio); twitter.com @wusports #WeAreWU |
Micro-Blogging the Bods
(Around) 140-character or less tweets highlighting the season
This will be the women's basketball team's first season as Ichabods. Washburn's female teams joined the male teams as Ichabods this year, dropping the Lady Blues nickname.
Washburn is playing OBU for the first time in school history and making its first trip to Arkansas since winning the 2004-05 NCAA national championship. WU beat Seattle Pacific in the Elite 8 final.
The game will benefit the Hot Springs Village Evening Lions. There will be a boys high school game at 12 p.m. and then the WU-OBU game will follow. A girls high school game will follow that.
The Ichabods are in the middle of a four-game road trip to open the season, all against NCAA II opponents. They won't play at home until November 23 against Southwestern.
The 94 points scored against Barry on Sunday were the most against an NCAA II school since posting 95 against Missouri Western in 2010-11. Washburn scored 87 Saturday against NSU to average 90.5 points last week.
Casyn Buchman set career highs in each game with 14 points against NSU and 24 against Barry. The junior's previous high was 13 against ESU. She shot 52% last week and 50% from 3-point range.
Washburn centers Kara Lee and Honor Duvall each started a game last weekend but the one coming off the bench scored more points. Lee had 18 against Barry and Duvall had 21 against NSU. Lee shot 71% last week.
Brittney Lynch had her first career double-double with 13 points and a career-high 11 rebounds against NSU.
The Ichabods were picked third in the MIAA coaches and media preseason polls. The coaches picked Emporia State first and the media picked Central Missouri first.
Washburn was picked 22nd in the USA Today Sports preseason poll. This is Washburn's lowest preseason rank since being unranked in 2002-03. 22nd is also its lowest ranking in its current streak of 34 straight rankings.
Ron McHenry is 343-72 (.827) in his 14th year at Washburn. He is the winningest DII coach among those with at least 10 years experience and he's led Washburn to 12 straight NCAA tournaments.
Washburn looks to stay hot with trip to Arkansas to play Ouachita Baptist
The 22nd-ranked Ichabods will continue their season opening road trip with a game Saturday at 2 p.m. against Ouachita Baptist in the Hot Springs Village Evening Lions Tip-Off Classic. The Jessieville Sports Arena will host the charity game and it will follow a 12 p.m. boys high school game. A girls high school game will follow Washburn's.
Big Country 94.5 FM will carry the game with Ryan Elder calling the action. Links to free live stats and audio are available at wusports.com/live. Tickets for the event are five dollars.
The Ichabods started the year 1-1 last week as they averaged 90.5 points a game in a 90-87 loss to fourth-ranked Nova Southeastern Saturday and a 94-67 win Sunday against Barry. Casyn Buchman averaged 19.0 points a game and Brittney Lynch averaged 9.0 rebounds.
Ouachita Baptist lost its only game this year, 80-72 at Texas Women's on Monday. The Tigers were led by Ashley Johnson with 16 points.
Washburn and OBU have never met and this is Washburn's first trip to Arkansas since winning the 2004-05 national championship in Hot Springs.
Washburn is opening the season on the road against four straight NCAA Division II opponents and won't play at home until November 23 against Southwestern (Kan.). The Ichabods next play at Drury on November 21.
Washburn returning to Arkansas for first time since 2004-05
The Ichabods have never played Ouachita Baptist and they will make their first trip to Arkansas since winning the NCAA II national championship in 2004-05. Hot Springs hosted the Elite 8 that year and Washburn beat Charleston in the quarterfinal, Central Arkansas in the semifinal and Seattle Pacific in the final.
Hot Springs is 18 miles south of Jessieville, the site of Saturday's game.
Ron McHenry coached Washburn to a 35-2 record that year as the University won its first and only NCAA national championship.
No more Lady Blues
Washburn's female athletic teams dropped the Lady Blues nickname over the summer and starting this school year, all Washburn teams are known as Ichabods. The change gives all athletic teams one of Washburn's key early benefactors, Ichabod Washburn, as their nickname.
Washburn pledged $25,000 to Lincoln College after its founding in 1865 and the school later changed its name to Washburn University and the men's teams eventually took the Ichabods nickname. The women's basketball team had been using the Lady Blues nickname since its inception in 1969-70.
McHenry begins 14th season at Washburn as NCAA II's winningest active coach
Washburn head coach Ron McHenry returns for his 14th season at Washburn with the highest winning percentage among active NCAA II coaches with at least 10 years at four-year schools.
McHenry is 343-72 (.827) overall and he will need just four more conference wins to get his 200th MIAA victory. He's 196-46 (.810) in MIAA games.
McHenry is a four-time MIAA coach of the year and he has eight MIAA regular season titles. He's been to 12 straight NCAA tournaments and he coached Washburn to an NCAA II national title in 2004-05.
He started the year second all-time in NCAA II history among coaches with at least 10 years with an .828 winning percentage. Lloyd Clark holds the record with an .834 winning percentage at Delta State from 1984-2002.
Ichabods picked 22nd in the nation
Washburn opened the year ranked 22nd in the USA Today Sports preseason poll. The Ichabods have been ranked in 174 of the last 175 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.
Emporia State is the highest ranked MIAA team with a No. 5 ranking after a 23-9 season last year. The Ichabods and Hornets won't play until February as they battle February 5 in Topeka and February 22 in Emporia.
Central Missouri is eighth in the poll and Washburn will travel to UCM January 6. MIAA opponents Pittsburg State, Northeastern State and Fort Hays State and non-conference opponent Drury all earned votes in the poll but were not ranked.
The No. 22 ranking is Washburn's lowest preseason ranking since being unranked in 2002-03 and its the lowest ranking in Washburn's current streak of 34 straight rankings.
MIAA coaches and media pick Ichabods third in preseason poll
The Ichabods will have some work to do if they are going to repeat as MIAA champions for a third straight time. The conference coaches and media both picked Washburn to finish third in the MIAA preseason women's basketball polls released October 24.
Washburn earned one first-place vote among the league's 14 head coaches and finished with 143 points in the poll. The coaches picked Emporia State first with 164 points and Central Missouri earned 158 to finish second in the voting. The media picked UCM first with 359 points and ESU second with 338. Washburn earned 312 votes and six of the 27 first-place votes. Fort Hays State was picked fourth and Pittsburg State was fifth in both polls.
Washburn won the MIAA last year with a 16-2 record and Central Missouri and Northeastern State tied for second with 14-4 records. Emporia State finished fourth at 13-5 and won the MIAA postseason tournament.
Washburn suiting just 11, including just one senior, to start season
Washburn will suit up just 11 of the 13 players on its roster and will have just one senior in Division I transfer Kara Lee.
Four juniors and a sophomore make up the Ichabods' five returners. Among the eight newcomers, junior Taylor Ignoto will not be eligible until the end of the fall semester and freshman Jada Lynch was injured in the preseason and will take a redshirt.
Quick history review
In Washburn's 44 years of basketball since 1969-70, the Ichabods are 826-357-1 (.698) in 1184 games. They have 13 MIAA regular season titles and nine tournament titles since joining the league in 1989-90.
Thirty all-America awards have been won between 16 different players and Washburn has seven MIAA MVPs and 22 MIAA first-teamers.
The Ichabods won the 2004-05 NCAA II national title and set an NCAA II record with a 51-game winning streak stretching from 2004-05 into the 2005-06 season. Guard Jennifer Harris was the NCAA II player of the year in 2005-06 and was the No. 20 pick in the 2006 WNBA Draft.
Buchman starts year setting career highs each game
Junior guard Casyn Buchman topped her career high of 13 points with 14 points Saturday in the season opener at Nova Southeastern. She then upped that with 24 points Sunday against Barry.
Buchman shot 52 percent in the two games and 50 percent from 3-point range. She made a career-high four 3-points against Barry with a career-high seven rebounds.
Washburn bigs competing early for starts, playing time
Washburn center Kara Lee, the lone senior on the team, started in the opener Saturday against Nova Southeastern and then Honor Duvall, a junior, started Sunday against Barry.
Both players are NCAA I transfers in their first year at Washburn. Lee played at UMKC and Duvall played at Long Island.
Duvall came off the bench Saturday to lead Washburn with 21 points as she was 7 of 16 from the field and 7 of 8 from the free throw line. She grabbed six rebounds.
That performance earned her a start Sunday but it was Lee who led Washburn inside as she was 7 of 9 from the field and 4 of 4 from the line for 18 points with seven rebounds.
Through two games, Duvall is averaging 16.5 points and 5.0 rebounds and shooting 50 percent. Lee is shooting 71 percent with 13.0 points and 4.5 rebounds a game.
Final notes on the Nova Southeastern Sharks Tip-Off Classic
Washburn lost its first season opener since 1998-99 after having won 14 straight.
The 177 total points scored in the NSU game tied for the seventh highest total in school history.
Washburn last combined with an opponent to score that many in a 94-87 triple overtime loss at Pittsburg State on February 21, 2009.
Brittney Lynch recorded her first career double-double with 13 points and 11 rebounds at NSU.
Haley Pfau tripled her season point total as a freshman last year with six points Saturday against NSU. She scored just two points last year and is averaging 6.5 a game this year.
These were Washburn's second meetings between the two teams in school history. Washburn also played NSU and Barry in a tournament at Barry in 2008-09 and won both games.
Coming up next
The Ichabods will play Drury for the seventh straight year with a 7 p.m. game on Thursday, November 21. Washburn beat the Panthers, 67-50 last year at home and lost on the road, 53-48 two years ago. Washburn is 9-3 all-time against Drury and 3-3 in Springfield, Mo.
The game will wrap up Washburn's four-game, season-opening road trip against NCAA II competition.
