JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. – The Washburn Ichabods overcame a 12-point first half deficit as they defeated the Lincoln Blue Tigers for the 28th consecutive game in a 77-63 win on Monday night to enter the Holiday Break on a seven-game winning streak moving to 4-0 in MIAA play.

Washburn (9-3, 4-0 MIAA) trailed 35-32 at the half to the Blue Tigers (5-7, 0-4 MIAA) after falling behind Lincoln by as many as 12 points with 8:28 to play in the opening frame. The Ichabods rallied to cut the lead to three at the break outscoring the Blue Tigers 20-11 to final 8:21 of the half.

After a pair of free throws to start the second half by Javion Blake trimmed the lead back to one, the Blue Tigers scored the next four points to go up five building a 39-34 lead, but the Ichabods came back with a 17-0 run over a 5:35 stretch going 7 of 8 from the field hitting all three 3-point attempts holding Lincoln to 0 of 7 shooting and 0 of 5 from deep to go up 51-39 with 12:06 to play.

Lincoln responded with four straight to cut the Ichabod lead back to eight, but a layup by Brady Skeens and one by David Salach pushed the lead back to 12 with 8:49 to go. Lincoln came back with five straight points cutting the lead to seven, but a 3-pointer by Blake pushed the lead back to double digits and the Blue Tigers would not get closer than eight the rest of the way at 71-63 with 1:36 to play before the Ichabods hit all six free throws the rest of the way to preserve the 14-point win.

Skeens led the Ichabods with a game-high 23 points on 9 of 11 shooting from the field and Blake finished with 21 going over 20 for the second-straight game. Coming off the bench Isaac Clark scored 13 and Drew Pyle chipped in nine hitting three 3-pointers.

Terrance Smith led the Blue Tigers with 19 points and Maurice Mason had 10.

Washburn finished 26 of 53 from the field shooting 55 percent in the second half hitting 16 of 29 scoring 45 points in the second half while holding the Blue Tigers to 7 of 26 shooting from the field in the second half for a 27 percent average en route to 19 of 49 shooting in the game overall.

After being down eight in the rebounding category at the break, Washburn outrebounded Lincoln in the second half by eight as both teams finished with 30 overall.

Washburn will be back in action on Dec. 30 when they will face Avila in the first game of a non-conference doubleheader at 2 p.m. wrapping up the calendar year.