TOPEKA, Kan. – The Washburn men's basketball team used a hot-shooting night from 3-point range en route to a school-record 18 3-pointers as the Ichabods opened MIAA play with a bang with a 97-72 win over Southwest Baptist Thursday night in Lee Arena. The Ichabods will return to action on Saturday hosting Central Missouri at 3 p.m.
With the Ichabods holding a 7-6 lead with 16:44 to play in the first half, Washburn (6-1, 1-0 MIAA) ripped off a 12-0 run hitting three 3-pointers in a 2:56 span to build a 17-6 lead and SBU did not get within nine the rest of the way pushing out to a lead as many as 24 taking a 49-28 at the first half break after hitting 9 of 18 shots from deep and 56 percent of their shots overall in the frame while holding SBU (5-4, 1-1 MIAA) to 12 of 31 shooting.
In the second half, Washburn stretched its lead to as many as 30 "cooling off" to 9 of 19 from deep in the frame cruising to the 25-point win.
Javion Blake led all scorers with a game-high 25 points. After to being held to five points in the first half, he erupted for 20 in the second half on 7 of 10 shooting from the field hitting 5 of 7 3-point attempts. Overall he hit 3-pointers in the game (6 of 10). He led four other Ichabods in double figures with
Jalen Lewis scoring 14 (3 of 5 from deep),
Devyn Wilson had 13 (3 of 6 from behind the arch),
Tyler Geiman had 13 (3 of 5 from deep) adding nine assists and three steals and
Will McKee (2 of 3 from deep) with 12 adding eight rebounds. The nine assists were a career-high for Geiman in the game and Lewis tied a season high with 14 as did Wilson with 13.
The Ichabods finished 18 of 37 overall from 3-point range in the record-setting performance and the 37 3-point tied a school record set in 1992 against Central Oklahoma. Three times in school history the Ichabods connected on 15 shots from distance – most recently against Manhattan Christian on Nov. 30, 2017.
Chris Rossow had 21 to lead the Bearcats.
The Ichabods had a 41 to 34 advantage on the glass and turned 15 Bearcat turnovers into 22 points and outran SBU 26 to 2 in fastbreak points. Washburn also had 21 assists on its 34 made field goals (34 of 69 overall) for a 49.3 percentage. SBU shot 46 percent from the field hitting 25 of 55 overall.
