Opening Tip
• The Washburn Ichabod men's basketball team wraps up its four game home stand hosting Central Oklahoma on Saturday at 3 p.m. in Lee Arena.
• The Ichabods are 12-3 and 6-0 in the MIAA coming off an 80-72 win over Northeastern State on Thursday.
• The Bronchos are 12-4 overall and 5-2 after falling at Emporia State 71-69 on Wednesday. 
• Against the Bronchos, Washburn will be in search of its 11th-straight win and its first 7-0 start in MIAA play since the 2003-04 season when the Ichabods opened conference play by winning their first eight MIAA games en route to the MIAA regular season title.
• The Ichabods trail the all-time series with the Bronchos 15-12 after sweeping the two meetings last year.
• Javion Blake leads the Ichabods in scoring at 16.7 ppg hitting a team-high 37 3-pointers on 79 attempts.
• Javion Blake enters the game with 992 career points midway through his junior season and looks to become the 24th member of the Ichabod 1,000-point club and only the 14th to reach at least 1,000 points in under three full seasons in an Ichabod uniform.
• Brady Skeens leads the team on the glass with 9.7  rebounds a game adding 14.0 points per game shooting 75 percent from the field hitting 84 of 112 attempts with 2.1 blocks per game.
• Washburn is second the MIAA in blocks (4.2) trailing Central Oklahoma who is averaging 5.3 blocks per game.
• Washburn is second in assists averaging 16.4 per contest and second in field goal percentage at .504.
• The Ichabods are ranked first in field goal defense holding opponents to 39 percent shooting.
• Washburn is second in rebounding offense at 38.0 per game and third in rebounding defense at 30.8 per game and ranked second in the MIAA in defensive rebounds with 28.2 per game and ranked second in rebounding margin at +7.2 per game.
• Brady Skeens is second in the MIAA in rebounds at 9.7 per game and is second in  the MIAA in blocks with 1.9 per game and 10th in steals per game with 1.4 … he is also first in field goal percentage (.750) … his field goal percentage is also first in the nation and his 28 total blocks is 29th while his total rebounds is 38th in the national rankings.
• Javion Blake made his 73rd consecutive start against Northeastern State starting every game of his Washburn career.
• Javion Blake also went over the 100 career 3-point field goals made chart and now has 122 in his junior season which is tied for 10th on the all-time made chart.
• Ichabod opponents have attempted 40 more free throws than Washburn has this season (349 to 325) and has made 30 more hitting 254 compared to 224 for Washburn … in MIAA play, Washburn has attempted 25 more free throws than its opponents making 14 more overall.
• Cameron Wiggins moved into eighth on the Ichabod all-time 3-point chart sitting at 154.
• Brady Skeens moved into fourth on the all-time Ichabod rebounding chart passing Ryan Murphy who had 738 from 1999 to 2003 … Skeens now has 795 at Washburn … in third place on the career chart is Ewan Auguste who had 888 from 1997 to 2001.
• Brady Skeens also needs 11 rebounds to pass the rebound total of his mother and former Lady Blue basketball player Joy (Benton) Skeens who had 806 from 1981-85 finishing her career as the all-time leading rebounder in school history.
• Skeens also needs only one blocks to reach 200 for his career.
• Randall Smith has 269 career assists which is seventh on the Ichabod career charts.
• David Salach moved into the top 10 sitting seventh on the all-time blocks chart and now has 71.
 
Ichabods on Radio
Washburn games will be broadcast on KTPK 106.9 FM radio with Jake Lebahn and Dan Lucero calling the action. Game will also be streamed live on the wusports.com website by following the listen live links on the men's basketball schedule page.

Coaches
Washburn Ichabod head coach Brett Ballard …
• is 12-3 in his first season as the Ichabods' head coach and 45-33 overall in his third year as a head coach.
• was named the Washburn Ichabod men's basketball head coach on April 6, 2016 after spending the 2014-15 to 2016-17 seasons as an assistant coach with the Wake Forest basketball program after working under head coach Danny Manning 2014-17 seasons and at the University of Tulsa during the 2012-14 seasons.
• he helped Wake Forest to its first NCAA Tournament appearance since the 2009-10 season following the 2016-17 season. 
• while at Tulsa, the Golden Hurricane played in the postseason both years, including earning a No. 13 seed in the 2014 NCAA Tournament. Tulsa also participated in the 2013 CBI, finishing that season with a winning record of 17-16 overall.
• before joining Manning at Tulsa, Ballard spent two seasons as the head basketball coach at Baker University going 33-30 overall, including a 21-12 mark in his final season at the helm in 2011-12. 
• prior to taking over the head coaching position at Baker, Ballard spent seven years on Bill Self's staff at Kansas, his alma mater. 
• he played two years for the Jayhawks under head coach Roy Williams from 2000-02 after transferring from Hutchinson Community College in his hometown of Hutchinson, Kan. In his two seasons as a Jayhawk, the team reached the 2001 NCAA Sweet Sixteen and appeared in the 2002 NCAA Final Four in Atlanta.
• he earned his bachelor's degree in secondary education from Kansas in 2003 earning an Academic All-Big 12 selection as a senior for his efforts in the classroom.
• is 0-0 against Central Oklahoma.
 
Central Oklahoma head coach Tom Hankins …
• is 44-30 in his third year at Central Oklahoma.
• is 2-2 against Washburn.
• he spent the previous 18 seasons in the Division I ranks.
• is a native of Tulsa and was an assistant coach for 15 years at Oral Roberts before serving the last three seasons as associate head coach at Southern Illinois-Carbondale.
• helped ORU capture five Summit League championships and made three NCAA Division I national tournament appearances during Hankins' tenure there.
• went to SIU in 2012 as associate head coach and recruiting coordinator, spending three seasons there before coming to UCO. .
 
Last Time Out For the Ichabods
Washburn 82, Northeastern state 70 -- Jan. 11, 2018
TOPEKA, Kan. -- The Washburn Ichabods improved to 6-0 in the MIAA and 12-3 overall with an 82-70 win over Northeastern State on Thursday in Lee Arena. 
The game was tied at 33 at the break as Northeastern State (3-12, 0-7 MIAA) hit 7 of 15 3-pointers in the opening half to counter the Ichabods' 48 percent shooting performance from the field. Overall the RiverHawks had 13 field goals in 32 attempts for a 41 percent average.
In the second half, an Ichabod 11-4 run over a 4:12 time period turned a five-point lead into a nine-point advantage with 7:15 to go. The RiverHawks would stay within striking distance cutting the lead back down to five after a 3-pointer by Jamir Andrews, who led NSU with 17 points, with 2:14 to go. However the NSU bench was called for a technical and after four Ichabod free throws overall, Washburn was up by nine and would push the margin on to as many as 12 with under a minute to play en route to the 12-point win.
Washburn was led by Brady Skeens who scored a game-high 20 points (with 11 coming in the second half) on 8 of 9 shooting adding eight rebounds, two assists and his 199th block of his career. Javion Blake had 18 to lift his career point total to 992 and Tyas Martin with 13 and Cameron Wiggins had 10 to reach double figures.
The Ichabods shot 55 percent in the second half hitting 16 of 29 shots overall while holding the RiverHawks to 47 percent overall in the half hitting 27 of 62 shots for a 43 percent clip. NSU hit 11 3-pointers on 26 attempts overall. Washburn was 17 of 24 from the free throw line while the RiverHawks were 5 of 8 after being whistled for 20 fouls compared to 13 for the Ichabods. 
Washburn outscored the RiverHawks 42 to 18 in the paint and held an 8-0 fastbreak points advantage.
 
About The Central Oklahoma Bronchos
• Central Oklahoma is 12-4 overall, 5-2 in the MIAA. 
• They lead the league with 5.1 blocks per game.
• Corbin Byford leads three Bronchos in double figures at 12.7 ppg and 6.8 rpg.
 
Series History with Northeastern State
• Saturday's meeting will be the 28th in the series history.
• The Bronchos lead the series 15-12 after the Ichabods swept the two meetings last year.
• The Ichabods lost the first match ups as MIAA schools on Jan. 5, 2013 67-72 in Edmond and in the MIAA tournament quarterfinals on March 3, 2013 99-88 in Kansas City.
• Washburn's two highest-scoring combined games in school history came against UCO. In 1992 the two teams scored 246 points (132-114, UCO) and in 1998 they scored 218 points (111-107, UCO).
• WU has scored at least 100 points against UCO three times and the Bronchos have done so twice. 
 
Last time out for Central Oklahoma
(Jan. 10, 2018) -- EMPORIA, Kan. – The University of Central Oklahoma men's basketball team made a furious comeback in the final minutes, but came up short, and lost 71-69 to Emporia State in a Mid-America Intercollegiate Athletics Association matchup Wednesday night.
After trailing by as many as 16 points with 7:30 to play in the second half, Central stormed back to cut the lead to single digits a few minutes later on Jordan London layup. A London 3-pointer with 2:34 to play made it a six-point game. And the Bronchos weren't done yet. 
With 1:20 to play, Anthony Roberson put in a layup to make it a 4-point game. Roberson added another layup with 14 seconds left to make it a two-point game. Emporia State launched the ensuing inbounds pass down the court ahead to Brandon Hall. Roberson chased Hall down and blocked his shot at the rim, giving UCO the opportunity to tie the game.
Roberson drew a foul, but only hit one of two free-throws to make it 70-69. Emporia hit one of two and on the final rebound, with 1.5 seconds to go, the Bronchos couldn't get a desperation heave off.
London's final 3-pointer of the game - the junior guard sank three of them - tied his career-high with 22 points. He was the high-scorer for the Bronchos. He finished 7 of 12 from the field, 3 of 6 from deep, and added 5 of 6 free throws. 
Jake Hammond added 14 points, nine rebounds and four blocks. Roberson had 13 points, nine rebounds and four blocks of his own. Marquis Johnson, 12 points, was the only other double-digit scorer for the Bronchos. 
UCO shot just 34 percent on the night, and 27 percent from behind the arc. But it's suffocating defense, that forced 16 turnovers, kept it in the game following a tough first half.
UCO came out of the gates a bit sluggish, going more than five minutes without its first basket. That ended when Jake Hammond made a layup with 14:45 to play. UCO ended the first half just 6 of 26 from the floor, and 2 of 10 from 3-point range.
The Bronchos continued to fight though. Emporia's largest lead of the first half was 12 points, at the 6:37 mark, but UCO clawed back into the game. Marquis Johnson stole an inbounds pass and earned a trip to the free-throw line. The sophomore hit both shots and the Emporia lead was down to three, 26-23.
The Hornets got one more bucket in the first half to take a five-point lead into the locker room at halftime.
 
Washburn Ichabod Basketball HIstory
•    The Ichabods are 1,552-1,062-2 (.592) all-time in the 114th year in the program's history.
•    Washburn is the fifth-winningest program in NCAA Division II history by victories.
•    Washburn is the winningest MIAA program since the 1989-90 season with an overall record of 577-268 since joining the conference and the NCAA.
•    The Ichabods have recorded 26 20-win seasons and they have one 30-win seasons after going 35-4 during the 1986-87 NAIA Championship season.
•    Washburn has won 21 conference championships including 10 MIAA titles.
•    Washburn has received 12 NCAA Tournament bids going to three Elite Eight's appearing in the 2001 NCAA National Championship game.
 
Home Sweet Home
•    The Ichabods are 430-85 (.848) all-time in Lee Arena.
•    The 2017-18 season marks the 33rd season of play in Lee Arena.
•    The Ichabods recorded a school-best 28-game winning streak from Nov. 19, 1993 to Feb. 8, 1995 in Lee Arena.
 
Up Next
•    The Ichabods will head out for road contests at Missouri Southern on Jan. 17 and at Pittsburg State on Jan. 20 before returning to Lee Arena for games with Southwest Baptist on Jan. 24 and Central Missouri on Jan. 27.