TOPEKA, Kan. -- The Washburn Ichabod men's basketball team took the first meeting of two of the Turnpike Tussle with a 70-62 win over Emporia State on Saturday night in Lee Arena. The Ichabods will be back in action on Wednesday at Central Missouri.

The Ichabods (11-6, 7-5 MIAA) led from start to finish in the game over Emporia State (8-10, 5-7 MIAA) building a lead of as many as 14 in the first half after an 8-0 run put the Ichabods up 33-19 with 2:30 to play before the half. The Hornets finished the half on a 10-1 run cutting the Ichabod advantage to 34-29 entering the break.

The Hornets continued their run pushing it up to a 14-1 run over a four-minute stretch trimming the Ichabod lead to one at 34-33 with 18:39 to go in the game before Cameron Wiggins and Brady Skeens each hit back to back lay ups pushing the lead back to five. The Ichabods would go up by 12 after a Skeens free throw with 5:44 to play before the Hornets again came back with an 8-2 run cutting the lead to six at 61-55 with 1:55 to play in the game.

Emporia State would get as close as four with 44 seconds to play, but Washburn hit three of four free throws to rest of the game holding the eight-point win over the Hornets.

Skeens led the ichabods with 15 points adding a career-high 16 rebounds for his fifth double double of the season hitting 5 of 7 shots going 5 of 8 from the free throw line. He also had four blocks and two assists in 33 minutes of work. Javion Blake had 14 points with five assists. Cameron Wiggins scored 10 points while Christian Ulsaker, Randall Smith and Jeremy Lickteig each had eight points.

Terrence Moore led the Hornets with 15 points.

The Ichabods outshot the Hornets 45 percent to 29 percent as Washburn finished 22 of 49 from the field compared to 19 of 65 from the field for the Hornets. Both teams had 39 rebounds, but 22 came on the offensive end for the Hornets. Washburn had 14 fast break points compared to six for the Hornets and outscored ESU 36 to 24 in the paint.