TOPEKA, Kan. --- The Washburn women's basketball traveled to Puerto Rico Tuesday morning where they will spend the Thanksgiving holiday while also participating in the Puerto Rico Invitational where it will face Kutztown (Pa.) on Nov. 25 and Puerto Rico-Bayamon on Nov. 26.
Tip-Off The Washburn Ichabods look to find its winning formula in the Puerto Rico Invitational ... Washburn's 2-2 start this season is just the second time in 17 seasons that a Ron McHenry led team has done so and the first since 2013-14 ... WU makes it second trip to the Caribbean island ... Ichabods' last trip to Puerto Rico was first weekend of the 2014-15 season - WU went 2-0 ... freshman Reagan Phelan leads the team in scoring (12.8 pts/game) after a 20 point outburst against St Mary ... Phelan is also ranked 19th in MIAA in PPG and 23rd in FG made (18) ... Alyxis Bowens leads the team in steals (9) and steals/game (2.3) ... as a Bowens is tied for sixth-best in the MIAA in steals and seventh in steals/game ... Erika Lane is second on the team with 12.0 points/game ... Lane leads the Ichabods in minutes (117) and minutes/game (29.3) and is tied for third in rebounds (18 total, 4.5/gm) ... Felisha Gibbs has a team best 6.0 boards per game (24 total) and is the team leader in FG% (.583) for all players with 35+ minutes ...Gibbs also has a team-best six blocks placing her sixth in the MIAA ... Jharian Bowen (9.5 ppg, 2.5 rpg), Erin Dohnalek (12 apg, 5.5 ppg, 2.8 rpg) and Tatiana Grant (8.3 ppg, 4.5 rpg, 4 steals) have also made noticeable contributions for the Ichabods ... as a team WU is shooting .426 from the floor while being edged out from the line (.708-.692) and 3-point distance (.365-.333) ... WU is averaging 67.8 points to its opponents 65.0 ... the Ichabods have outscored opponents by a combined 205-186 during the first three quarters though have lost the final period 74-66 ... head coach Ron McHenry entered the season 11 wins shy of 400.
Exhibition History Washburn is 10-20 all-time in exhibitions under Ron McHenry since 2000-01 ... The Ichabods dropped both their preseason games as they faced Division I opponents Kansas State and Kansas ... under McHenry, WU is 4-16 against NCAA Division I opponents all-time.
Last Season Washburn's 2015-16 campaign with a three consecutive wins and a 4-2 mark through the first six games ... it closed the season 15-14 overall and finished tied for sixth in the MIAA at 11-11 ... The Ichabods entered the MIAA Tournament as the No. 7-seed and lost in the first round to No. 10-seed Central Missouri, 74-70 ... Erika Lane was named All-MIAA Third Team while Felisha Gibbs and Alyxis Bowens garned Honorable Mention nods.
MIAA Preseason Poll Emporia State topped the preseason poll with 12 first-place votes and 168 total points ... Pittsburg State followed with 156 points and two first-place votes ... Ichabods were third (132) ... Fort Hays State was forth (127) and Missouri Western fifth (124) -- full is attached.
Washburn on the Radio Washburn games will be broadcast on KTPK 106.9 FM radio with Jake Lebahn and Dan Lucero calling the action. Games will also be streamed live on wusports.com by following the listen live links on the women's schedule page.
New Faces Washburn has seven new players on its 2016 roster, including one NCAA Division I transfer, three junior college transfers and three true freshmen ... Charisma Alexander joins the Ichabods after one season at Division I Stephen F. Austin. Alexander averaged 4.2 points, 4.0 rebounds and 25.4 minutes while appearing in all 31 games for the LadyJacks and helping them win the Southland Conference championship ... Tatiana Grant played two seasons at Pratt Community College is the most decorated of the three junior college transfer as she earned the Kansas Jayhawk Community College Conference MVP in 2014 before later being named an NJCAA All-American after finishing 27.4 points/game and 8.6 rebounds/game ... Shambrey Budd played two seasons at Northwest Kansas Technical where she averaged 10.9 points/game and shot 32.7 percent from 3-point range her sophomore year ... Macy Myers joins Washburn following two seasons with Otero Junior College where she finished her career averaging 19 points/game for the Trojans ... the crop of true freshmen are made up of Cara Donley, Reagan Phelan and Jo Roepke ... Donley was multi-sport letterwinner at both Abilene and Scared Heart HS where she earned various individual accolades ... Phelan was also a multi-sport athlete during her time at Central Plains where she was named the 2015-16 KBCA Miss Kansas Basketball ... Roepke played for Valley Hieghts where she lettered in basketball, volleyball and track and was the 2016 Kansas 2A long jump champion.
Early Success/Monthly Breakdown Under Ron McHenry, Washburn has put together 12 perfect Novembers, including a 6-0 mark in 2014-15 and a 3-0 mark so far in 2015-16 ... Washburn has no more than two losses in November under McHenry ... a month-by-month breakdown of the Ichabods under Coach McHenry is attached.
Where Are They From? Washburn's 2016-17 roster has a wide mix of hometowns geographically, with its 17 players hailing from three different countries (United States, France and Denmark) and six different states within the US ... There are 10 players from Kansas (Shambrey Budd, Jharian Bowen, Alyxis Bowens, KayLee Farmer, Erika Lane, Reagan Phelan, Jo Roepke, Cara Donley and Madison and Makayla Vargo) ... Arkansas (Felisha Gibbs), Colorado (Macy Myers), Missouri (Erin Dohnalek), Texas (Charisma Alexander) and Wisconsin (Tatiana Grant) are the other US states represented on WU's roster ... traveling abroad, Cindy Demosthene (France) and Julie Ravn (Denmark) are international players on the Ichabods' squad.
The Coach
Washburn's Ron McHenry is in his 17th season with the Ichabods ... during his first 16 season McHenry has amassed a 389-108 record ... was named the fifth coach in program-history in 2000 ... his .783 winning percentage to start the 2016-17 season is the best by any coach to lead the Ichabods/Lady Blues and listed him as the NCAA's 23rd-winningest coach all-time in women's basketball across all divisions (based on percentage) ... he is also listed fifth in the all-time wins for Division II ... McHenry has 12 seasons with 20 or more wins and three seasons topping 30 ... in his first 16 years, McHenry has coached 21 All-American selections, 42 All-MIAA nominees and one WNBA draft pick ... during the 2004-05 campaign McHenry steered the program to an NCAA Division II title ... McHenry also has a combined 15 MIAA regular-season and tournament championships ... McHenry is 9 wins from No. 400 ... McHenry graduated from Washburn in 1984.
Last TIme Out Washburn 85, Saint Mary 59 -- Nov. 14, 2016
TOPEKA, Kan. -- Cold shooting and 29 turnovers spelled disaster for the Ichabod women's basketball team in a 74-43 loss to Drury on Saturday afternoon in Lee Arena ... After trailing by two points at the end of the first quarter 15-13 but hit only 2 of 10 shots in the second quarter as the Panthers (4-0) took a 38-21 lead into the halftime break ... In the third quarter, Washburn was only 3 of 7 from the field in the third quarter and finished 5 of 13 in the fourth leading to a 15 of 44 performance for the game for a 34 percent average for the game ... Washburn was led by Jharian Bowen with 12 points as the only Ichabod to reach double figures ... Washburn's 29 turnovers led to 34 points for Drury and the Panthers outscored the Ichabdos 34 to 20 in the paint and 15 to 4 on second chance points ... Paige Wilson led five Panthers in double figures with 15 points ... The Ichabods return to the court on Nov. 25 in San Juan, Puerto Rico with games against Kutztown on Nov. 25 and vs Puerto Rico-Bayamon before returning home to take on Panhandle State on Dec. 3 and Benedictine on Dec. 5 before opening MIAA play at Fort Hays State on Dec. 7.
About Kutztown Went 10-6 (7-15 PSAC) last season ... under head coach Janet Malouf the Golden Bears have 17 conference tournament appearances and one trip to the NCAA tournament ... KU has five upperclassmen ... grad student Alex Heck started the week ranked ninth in the conference in scoring (15.8 ppg) with a team-best seven steals and third-best in FG% (23-49/.469) ... Kelsey Watson has a team-best 9.5 reb/game and is third on the team with 10.5 pts/game ... Kalee Fuegel leads Golden Bears in assists with 17, Kara Funk and Sierra Taylor follow with 16 and 15 respectively ... Jenna Altomare is second on team in scoring (12.8 pts/gm) ... KU have allowed opponents to shoot .422 from the field with .317 from behind the arc ... Kutztown is 18th PSAC in scoring defense (83.0 ppg) ... average score margin for KU is -11.8 (71.3-83.0) ... this is the first meeting between the teams.
About Puerto Rico-Bayamon Puerto Rico-Bayamon is an independent member of NCAA Division II ... UPRB are 2-3 on the season with wins over Winona State (61-57 - 11/11/16) and University of the District of Columbia (62-57 - 11/16/16) ... the Cowgirls will face Texas Southern (11/23) and Lenoir-Rhyne (11/25) before taking on the Ichabods ... this is the second meeting.
'Bods History The 2016-17 marks the 48th season of Washburn women's basketball ... the Ichabods are 869-393-1 all-time ... the program has seen 23 seasons with at least 20 wins and had made 17 trips to the NCAA Division II Championship ... in 2004-05 Washburn won the NCAA Division II Championship and finished the season 35-2.
