TOPEKA, Kan. – The Washburn Ichabods led for 33 minutes as they swept the regular season series with Central Missouri in an 80-70 win over the Mules on Wednesday night in Lee Arena. Washburn returns to action on Saturday at Lindenwood.
 
The Ichabods (13-9, 9-8 MIAA) jumped out to an early 18-12 lead just after the midway point of the first half before the Mules (13-10, 7-10 MIAA) came back and took a two-point lead at 31-29 with 45 seconds to play before the half, but the Ichabods scored five straight points on a 3-pointer by Javion Blake and a pair of free throws by Robert Christopher pushed the Washburn lead to 34-31 at the intermission.
                                                   
Starting the second half, Washburn came out on a 12-2 run over the next 3:31 stretching its lead to 13 at 46-33 after another 3-pointer by Blake with 16:33 to play. The Mules cut the lead to seven at 64-57 with 6:04 to play, but would not get any closer as the Ichabods snapped a three-game losing streak and evened the all-time series with the Mules at 49 wins each.
 
Blake led five Ichabods in double figures with 21 points hitting 4 of 9 3-point attempts. Cameron Wiggins recorded 16 points off the bench going 6 of 9 from the field and 4 of 6 from 3-point range. Brady Skeens scored 13 points adding three blocks while Christian Ulsaker scored 10 points with three assists and Randall Smith scored 10 points adding eight assists. Cole Johnson, Jeremy Lickteig and Smith all had five rebounds to tie for game-high honors.
 
Jakob Lowrance led the Mules with 18 points followed by Spencer Reaves who scored 17 and D'Marnier Cuningham with 11.
 
Washburn outrebounded the Mules 32 to 19 turning 13 offensive rebounds into 11 second chance points while outscoring the Mules 30 to 16 in the paint.
 
Washburn finished 26 of 50 overall from the field hitting 10 of 18 3-point attempts and 18 of 24 free throws. The Mules were 23 of 49 overall and 9 of 20 from deep hitting 15 of 20 free throws in the game.