ST. CHARLES, Mo. – Washburn Women's Basketball had three Ichabods score in double-digits en route to sweeping its regular season series with Lindenwood, defeating the Lady Lions, 70-60, on Saturday, Feb. 13 at Hyland Arena.
WU (13-11, 9-9 MIAA) just missed its third straight shooting effort above the 50 percent mark, finishing 26-of-54 from the field (48.1 percent) while hitting five three-pointers on the day to snap a four-game losing streak. WU led for nearly 35 minutes of game play and trailed for only 16 seconds during the contest.
Erika Lane led the team with 22 points to go with two assists and five rebounds and
Felisha Gibbs and
Jharian Bowen joined her in double-digits with 14 and 11 points, respectively. Gibbs added five rebounds, tied second on the team behind
Jayna Smith (six rebounds) on the boards and Bowen led the team with three steals.
Erin Dohnalek scored seven points and had a team-high three assists.
The Ichabods built an early four-point lead, 10-6, in the opening five minutes thanks to three-pointers from Lane and Bowen, but saw the Lions soon answer to tie it at 10 in the next three minutes of play. From there, the teams traded points to stay tied at 15 headed for the second.
That back-and-forth play continued until the 4:16 mark of the second when Alyxis Bowns scored four straight as the opening part of a 10-2 run that ended the half and sent WU to the locker room ahead seven, 29-22.
WU grew its lead into double-digits in the first 3:05 of play in the third, combining the second half run with another scoring burst early to make it 37-27. LWU soon responded with a quick burst of five straight, though, to bring it back within five, 37-32 at the 5:24 mark of the third. Moments later the Ichabods again put the lead at 10 (43-33) before Lindenwood responded to cut the deficit to five (50-45) at the end of the quarter.
The fourth quarter saw Gibbs hit a layup at 7:12 that gave WU a nine-point lead before both teams settled in for a scoreless span of over three minutes before Lane ended the drought with her second three-pointer of the game at 3:56, putting the score at 61-49. Dohnalek scored on a layup a minute later to close a stretch of seven unanswered for Washburn, which was enough for the Ichabods to close out the win.
The Ichabods are back at Lee Arena next week for the final two home games of the regular season, taking on Northeastern State on Wednesday, Feb. 17 and Central Oklahoma on Saturday, Feb. 20.
