ST. JOSEPH, Mo. – A nine point halftime deficit and 16 first half turnovers was too much to overcome for the Washburn Ichabod basketball team in its season opener as they fell to the preseason NSIC favorite Northern State in a 69-57 loss in the first game of the Hillyard Classic. Washburn returns to action on Sunday at 4 p.m. when they will take on Winona State at the MWSU Fieldhouse.

The Ichabods had leads of six twice in the first half at 10-4 with 16:25 to play and 12-6 with 14:27 to play before the Wolves 14-2 run over the next 7:53 to take a 20-14 lead before a 3-pointer from Tyler Geiman halted the run with a 3-pointer. After the teams traded jumpers, Northern State pushed its lead to as many as 11 in the opening half at 36-25 before a Geiman layup pulled Washburn within nine at the break down 36-27.

The Ichabods outshot the Wolves 55 percent to 41 percent, but 16 turnovers in the first 20 minutes led to 11 points for Northern State.

Northern State built a lead of as many as 22 points at 55-33 with 11:35 to go in the game before an Ichabod 12-0 run cut the lead to 10 with 6:09 to play. After a free throw by Randall Smith, Washburn trimmed the lead to nine with 5:57 to play, but would not get any closer than 10 on two separate occasions as the Wolves would go on for the 12-point win.

Isaac Clark led the Ichabods with 14 points off the bench and Javion Blake scored 11 of his 13 in the second half. Brady Skeens had eight points with a game-high 11 rebounds adding four blocks, three steals and three assists.

Darin Peterka led four Wolves in double figures with 12 points.

Washburn finished 24 of 59 from the field and was only 3 of 4 from the free throw line while the Wolves were 23 of 55 overall and hit 18 of 21 free throws in the game. The Ichabods held a 35 to 33 advantage on the glass and finished the game with 22 turnovers with six miscues in the second half.