THE TIP-OFF
The Washburn women's basketball team open its conference schedule on Thursday at 5:30 pm with Southwest Baptist making a trip to Topeka. This will be the final regular season trip to Lee Arena for the purple and black Bearcats as they are leaving the MIAA following this season.

THEY GOT HISTORY 
Thursday's meeting will be the 58th all-time ... Washburn leads the series, 42-15 including a season sweep in 2017-18 to go 3-0 ... the Ichabods are 24-6 all-time when hosting Southwest Baptist ... Washburn has hosted the Bearcats in the opening round of the MIAA in three of the last five seasons.

SCOUTING SBU
• The Bearcats come to Lee Arena at 2-5 on the year and 0-1 in MIAA play after falling 66-72 in their opener to Central Missouri.
• SBU is riding a three-game losing streak, with its last win being a 105-19 result over Kansas Christian on Nov. 19.
• SBU was 15-14 last season and finished 10th in the MIAA at 7-12.
• The Bearcats have 10 upperclassmen  including seniors Morgan Henderson and RayShee Smith ... Henderson averaged 8.8 points 4.3 rebounds in 2017-18 but has played a larger role  thus far netting a team-best 13.9 per game with 9.1 boards ... Smith has also seen a notable up-tick in her stats scoring 8.7 last season to 11.5 thus far this season.
• Collectively the Bearcats have outscored opponents by a combined 562-517, but have been outscored themselves in the third, 141-137.

ON THE GLASS
• Washburn has out rounded opponents in five of six games thus far.
• Washburn's 41.7 rebounds a game is fifth in the MIAA and 75th in Div. II.
• The Ichabods 250 total boards is 11th in the league.
• Washburn's average rebound margin (+4.7) is 85th in Div. II and ninth-best in the conference ... the team's highest single-game margin is 11 vs Rockhurst (11/16).
• Sophomore Hunter Bentley has team-bests in total rebounds (34) and boards per game (5.7).

REAGAN
• The Holyrood, Kansas native is averaging a team-best 10.8 points while netting 65 in six games and is ranked 26th and 32nd respectively among MIAA leaders.
• Phelan's 29 assists is 73rd among Division II while her per game averaged of 4.8 is 41st among the national leaderboard.
• Her 1.53 assist-turnover ratio is ninth-best among the MIAA.
• Reagan has four games this season with five or more assists inlcuding a season-best seven against Montevallo (11/23). 

MCAFEE
• The junior from Sabetha, Kansas leads the team in steals (16) and steals per game (2.67) ... as a result of her numbers, Alexis McAfee is second among the MIAA leaderboard in both categories while nationally ranked 89th and 55th respectively.
• She's 38th in the MIAA in points per game (9.5) and 45th in total points (57) ... started the season netting double-figures in each of the first three games.
• Ranked 28th in the MIAA in rebounds per game (5.5).

BENTLEY ROLLING
• After appearing in 30 games last season with just one start, the sophomore from Kansas City, Missouri has been on the floor for the opening tip-off in every game this season.
• Through six games Hunter Bentley's scoring average is up three points compared to the same time last season (4.2 »» 7.3).
• Bentley is averaging 26.7 minutes a game in 2018-19, 11 minutes than she averaged all of last season (15.8).

AT THE LINE 
• Washburn has made 55 of 92 (.598) attempts from the free throw line.
• Washburn opponents have made 79 of 109 (.725) from the line.
• The Ichabods have yet to shoot better than .700 from the line this season, a mark they reached 16 times last season – including three times during the first six games.

CHASING HISTORY
Two seasons after notching his 400th career win, head coach Ron McHenry began the 2018-19 season six wins shy of becoming the winningest coach in program-history, currently a distinction held by predecessor Patty Dick with 431. Now in his 18th season with Washburn, McHenry has eight MIAA titles with 12 trips to the NCAA Championship plus Washburn's only NCAA national title (2005).  

50TH SEASON 
The 2018-19 academic year marks the 50th season of women's athletics at Washburn University, which began with volleyball, basketball, softball, field hockey and  gymnastics. Although, field hockey and gymnastics are no longer available, the offerings for female student-athletes have grown to eight sports with the addition of soccer, tennis, and most cross country and track and field.

FOLLOW THE BODS
As usual, fans not in attendance can stream the action on their computer or mobile devices via The MIAA Network or tune-in Country Legends 106.9 FM (KTPK) on their radio dial as get all the Washburn play-by-play and commentary provided by Jake Lebahn and Dan Lucero ... links for stats and streaming video/radio can always be found at wusports.com/live or on the women's basketball schedule page.