WEATHERFORD, Okla. -- The Washburn Ichabods opened the 2016-17 regular season in style racing out to an 18-4 run and not looking back in an 84-64 win over East Central at the Southwestern Oklahoma State Classic. Washburn will take on the host squad Bulldogs on Saturday at 2:30 p.m.
The win, which was head coach
Bob Chipman's 789th of his career, was aided by Washburn's first half shooting percentage of 53 percent while holding the Tigers to 28 percent in the opening half in the win.
The inital Ichabod run came over a 5:09 stretch as the Washburn hit 7 of its first 10 shots including 2 of 3 3-pointers in the opening onslaught.
The Tigers cut the lead to eight with 9:42 to play in the first half, but the Ichabods responded with a 10-2 run to go up 18 with 6:34 to play as they took a 44-25 lead into the break.
Washburn split a 16-3 run toward the end of the first half and carried it over to the second half building a lead to 26 and would go on to lead by 29 with 12:40 to play in the game before the Tigers cut the lead back to 22 with 5:28 to go.
East Central cut the lead back to 11 with an 11-0 run before Washburn finished the game on an 11-2 run leading to the 20-point win.
Cameron Wiggins led the Ichabods with 23 points hitting 5 of 8 3-pointers and 8 of 11 shots overall from the field.
Javion Blake scored 16 points and
David Salach had 11 points with a career-high five assists.
Brady Skeens finished with 16 rebounds adding six points and three blocks.
Randall Smith had five assists to go with eight points.
ECU was led by Brett Cannon's 10 points.
Washburn was 32 of 56 from the field hitting 57 percent overall going 6 of 13 from 3-point range and hit 14 of 17 free throw attempts while outrebounding the Tigers 42 to 26 on the glass.
ECU finished 18 of 53 from the field and 6 of 25 from 3-point range. ECU attmpted 18 more free throws than the Ichabods hitting 22 of 35 overall.
Washburn finished with 44 points in the paint compared to 18 for the Tigers and had 18 fastbreak points to ECU's two.
