¦    The Washburn Ichabods continue their four-game-regular-season-ending road trip as they will face Central Oklahoma on Thursday in Edmond.
¦    The Ichabods have already clinched a first-round bye for the MIAA Tournament and will play in Kansas City on Friday, March 2 at a time and against an opponent to be determined.
¦    Three of the four first-round byes have been determined with Northwest Missouri, Washburn and Missouri Southern. There are five teams who still have a chance at gaining the final spot with a bye.
¦    The Ichabods are 19-7 and 13-4 in the MIAA after rallying from a 22-point deficit at Southwest Baptist to win in overtime 102-100 on Saturday.
¦    The 22-point deficit overcome for a win against the Bearcats was the largest by an Ichabod team for a victory since March 14, 2003 when the Ichabods trailed by 19 with 18:24 to go in the first round of the NCAA Tournament and came back to win 75-73 against West Texas A&M. The Ichabods also rallied for two wins of a 17-point deficit and three from a 14-point deficit since the 1999-2000 season.
¦    The Bronchos are 17-9 and 10-7 in the MIAA sitting in fifth place in the conference race.
¦    UCO has lost its last two games falling 87-66 at Nebraska-Kearney and 57-55 at Fort Hays State.
¦    The Ichabods won the first meeting this season with Central Oklahoma 49-47 in Topeka on Jan. 13.
¦    The Ichabods are a half game behind Missouri Southern in the MIAA race for second place in the MIAA standings after Missouri Southern topped Pittsburg State on Tuesday night. Both teams are behind Northwest Missouri and two games ahead of Central Missouri in the conference race.
¦    The Ichabods trail the all-time series with the Bronchos 15-13 after sweeping the two meetings last year and winning the first one earlier this season.
¦    Javion Blake leads the Ichabods in scoring at 14.7 ppg hitting a team-high 49 3-pointers on 119 attempts hitting 41 percent from deep.
¦    Javion Blake became 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 …  he is 15th on the all-time scoring chart with 1,122 points.
¦    Brady Skeens leads the team on the glass with 10.9 rebounds a game adding 14.5 points per game shooting 74 percent from the field hitting 151 of 204 attempts with 2.4 blocks per game and he is coming off a career-high 32 points against SBU last time out … in MIAA play he is averaging 15.5 ppg and 11.4 rpg.
¦    Brady Skeens became the 25th Ichabod to go over the 1,000 point mark in a career doing so at Pittsburg State earlier this season and is 14th on the career scoring chart with 1,129 points.
¦    Washburn is second the MIAA in blocks (4.3) trailing Central Oklahoma who is averaging 4.9 blocks per game.
¦    Washburn leads the league in assists at 15.5 per contest and third in field goal percentage at .489. Central Oklahoma is ninth in field goal percentage at .459.
¦    The Ichabods are ranked first in field goal defense holding opponents to 41 percent shooting and Central Oklahoma is second at 43 percent.
¦    Brady Skeens is first in the MIAA in rebounds at 10.9 per game and is first in the MIAA in blocks with 2.4 per game and eighth in steals per game with 1.3 … he is also first in field goal percentage (.740) … his field goal percentage is also first in the nation.
¦    Javion Blake's 134 3-point field goals is 10th on the all-time chart.
¦    Cameron Wiggins is fifth on the Ichabod all-time 3-point chart sitting at 176.
¦    Brady Skeens is third on the all-time rebounding chart at Washburn with 933 and passing Ewan Auguste who was in third recording 888 from 1997 to 2001.
¦    Skeens also went over the 200 block mark for his career against Central Oklahoma and the Ichabod all-time leader now has 232, which is 132 more than Ewan Auguste who is second on the chart with 100 blocks.
¦    In Brady Skeens 36 career double doubles at Washburn, he has averaged 15.1 ppg and 13.1 rpg.
¦    Randall Smith has 302 career assists which is fourth on the Ichabod career chart and he needs 12 more to move into third all-time at Washburn.
¦    David Salach moved into the top 10 sitting seventh on the all-time blocks chart and now has 76.
  15.1: The number of turnovers per game the Ichabods have had in the seven losses.
.625: Free throw percentage of the Ichabods (75 of 120) in the seven losses.
.451: Field goal percentage of the Ichabods (167 of 390) in the seven losses.
13.9: The number of turnovers per game the Ichabods have had in the 19 wins.
.710: Free throw percentage of the Ichabods (319 of 449) in the 19 wins.
.502: Field goal percentage of the Ichabods (561 of 1117) in the 19 wins.
74.0: Field goal percentage of Brady Skeens - best on Ichabod single season chart.
63: Number of blocks by Brady Skeens this season - second on Ichabod single chart … Skeens has both the school single season record of 97 which was set last season.
20: Most wins by an Ichabod coach in their first season on the bench (Bob Chipman - 1979-80 season).
19: Wins by Brett Ballard this season on the Ichabod bench.
18: Wins by Ichabod Hall of Famer Glenn Cafer in his first season on the Ichabod bench (1967-68 season) and A.C. Lonborg in his first season on the Ichabod bench (1923-24 season).
12: Number of wins the Ichabods recorded in a row after losing back to back games earlier this season.
2 and 8: Number of points in the losses by the Ichabods have been defeated by in six of their seven losses …this season the Ichabods have had three two-point losses, three eight-point losses and one 12-point loss.
9: Number of Ichabods who are in the 1,000 point/200 assist club after Brady Skeens went over the 200 assist mark against SBU on Saturday … he joined Javion Blake who joined the club earlier this season.
9: Number of steals Brady Skeens needs to become the sixth member in Ichabod history to join the 1,000 point/100 steal club.
2: Number of people in Ichabod program history in the 1,000 point/100 block club with Brady Skeens and Ewan Auguste.
11: Number of people in Ichabod program history in the 1,000 point/500 rebound club after Brady Skeens joined it this season.
1: Number of dry erase boards smashed on the Ichabod bench this season.
  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. Washburn Ichabod head coach Brett Ballard …
¦    is 19-7 in his first season as the Ichabods' head coach and 52-37 overall in his third year as a head coach.
¦    was named the Washburn Ichabod men's basketball head coach on April 6, 2017 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 1-0 against Central Oklahoma.
 
Central Oklahoma head coach Tom Hankins …
¦    is 50-35 in his third year at Central Oklahoma.
¦    is 2-3 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 
  Washburn 102, Southwest Baptist 100 - Overtime -- Feb. 17, 2018
BOLIVAR, Mo. -- The Washburn Ichabod men's basketball team rallied from down 22 points in 11:08 to play in a 102-100 win over Southwest Baptist on Saturday in overtime.
With the Ichabods down 71-49 with 11:08 to go, Washburn ripped off a 13-0 lead to cut the lead down to nine with 7:39 to go.
After SBU put the lead back to 11 with 7:34 to go, Washburn (19-7, 13-4 MIAA) responded with a 12-1 run over the next 2:27 to tie the score at 74 with 5:07 to go.
Down 82-81 with 2:08 to go in regulation, a 3-pointer by Randall Smith put Washburn up two and SBU came back with a layup with 1:21 to go prior to regulation as neither team scored the rest of the way.
Starting overtime, Cameron Wiggins hit a 3-pointer and the Ichabods would not give up the lead the rest of the way in overtime coming back for the win.
Brady Skeens scored a career high 32 points on 15 of 18 shooting adding 13 rebounds and six assists playing 42 minutes in the game. Wiggins scored a season-high 22 points hitting 5 of 7 3-pointers and Tyas Martin had 17 points, Javion Blake scored 16 and Smith finished with 11 adding seven assists. The other four points came from David Salach to wrap up the scoring for the Ichabods.
Logan Hovey scored 31 to lead the Bearcats.
The Ichabods finished 56 percent from the field overall hitting 5 of 7 shots in the overtime period including 2 of 3 3-pointers. Southwest Baptist finished the game at 55 percent shooting and finished 11 of 20 from 3-point range in the game.
Washburn and Southwest Baptist each finished with 35 rebounds and outscored the Bearcats 58-34 in the paint.
  Washburn 49, Central Oklahoma 47 -- Jan. 13, 2018
TOPEKA, Kan. – The Washburn Ichabods held off a Central Oklahoma second half rally picking up their 11th-straight win improving to 13-3 and 7-0 in the MIAA with a 49-47 win over the Bronchos as Jordan London's 3-point attempt at the buzzer missed leading the Ichabods to the win.
With Washburn up 12 at the break, UCO scored the first 13 points to start the second half taking a 27-26 lead with 16:59 to play. Tyas Martin's layup snapped the run, but UCO came back with two points to take a 29-28 lead with 15:02 to play.
After a layup by Brady Skeens who finished with seven points and a game-high 16 rebounds, and a free throw by Jace Williams was up two, but again UCO came back with four straight points to go up 33-31 with 12:11 to play.
Washburn then ripped off a 12-0 run to go up 43-33 with 8:24 to play. UCO cut the lead to six with 6:31 to go and to four with 4:02 to play, but a 3-pointer by Javion Blake, the newest edition to the Washburn 1,000-point club, hit a 3-pointer pushing the lead back to seven with 3:45 remaining.
From that point, UCO's Marquis Johnson hit a 3-pointer to cut the advantage back to four and Jake Hammond's hook shot in the lane cut it to two with 40 seconds to play, but neither team scored the rest of the way as the Ichabods picked up the win to remain a perfect 9-0 in home games.
The Ichabods took a 26-14 lead into the halftime break holding Central Oklahoma (12-5, 5-3 MIAA) to 6 of 27 shooting from the field including 1 of 9 from 3-point range. Washburn was 9 of 22 for a 41 percent clip hitting 6 of 7 free throws pushing out to the 12-point lead at the break.
Blake led the Ichabods with 13 points lifting his career total to 1,005 points in his junior season. Skeen's 16 rebounds pushed his career total to 811 (fourth in school history to go over 800 rebounds) and the Ichabods' career leader in blocks went over the 200 mark with his three blocks.
Johnson led UCO with 11 points and Hammond had a double double with 10 points and 10 rebounds.
Washburn held the Bronchos to 33 percent shooting in the game hitting 20 of 60 shots while the Ichabods were at 37 percent on 18 of 49 shooting. The Ichabods were +12 in rebounds hodling a 45 to 33 advantage on the glass and hit 9 of 14 free throws. Both teams hit four 3-pointers in the game. The Ichabods committed 17 turnovers leading to 15 points for the Bronchos and were outscored 32 to 28 in the paint.
The 49 points was the fewest by the Ichabods in a win in the shot clock era and the 96 combined points were the second fewest scored by Washburn and its opponent in the shot clock era.
  ¦    Central Oklahoma is 17-9 overall, 10-7 in the MIAA.
¦    UCO is 10-2 in home games this season.
¦    They lead the league with 4.7 blocks per game.
¦    Corbin Byford leads two Bronchos in double figures at 12.2 ppg and 6.6 rpg … Marqueese Grayson is scoring 12.0 ppg.
  ¦    Saturday's meeting will be the 29th in the series history.
¦    The Bronchos lead the series 15-13 after the Ichabods swept the two meetings last year and the first one earlier this season.
¦    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).
¦    In the Jan. 13, 2018 meeting, the 49 points was the fewest by the Ichabods in a win in the shot clock era and the 96 combined points were the second fewest scored by Washburn and its opponent in the shot clock era.
¦    WU has scored at least 100 points against UCO three times and the Bronchos have done so twice.
  (Feb. 17, 2018) HAYS, Kan. – The University of Central Oklahoma men's basketball team came up short on the game's final possession and lost 57-55 to Fort Hays State in Mid-America Intercollegiate Athletics Association action Saturday evening at Gross Memorial Coliseum.
Trailing 57-55 with nine seconds left, Central inbounded the ball to Corbin Byford who got tangled up with a FHSU defender trying to make a move in the paint and go up for the potential game-tying bucket. Instead, the ball popped loose, and a scramble for the loose ball is how the game ended.
The Bronchos fall to 17-9 with the loss, 10-7 in the MIAA. Fort Hays State is 16-10 with the win, and 9-8 in league play.
UCO finished the game without a single, double-digit scorer. Jake Hammond, Jordan Hemphill, and Josh Holliday each scored nine points to lead the way for Central. UCO shot just 38.6 percent on the night, hitting 8 of 22 3-point attempts. The Bronchos only took five free-throws, making three of those.
Down by four at halftime, the second half was as back-and-forth as it could have been.
The game was tied six times in the second half alone. The teams alternated baskets for a near 10-minute stretch before a missed free-throw by Fort Hays State left the Tigers up by a point.
Then the two teams alternated lead changes for the next few minutes. UCO led 47-46, and 49-48 before Hays scored four in a row. A Marqueese Grayson 3-pointer tied the game at 52 (the sixth tie of the half), then a Holliday three gave UCO a 55-54 lead.
The Bronchos never scored again.
Hays responded with a 3-pointer to take a 57-55 lead with 28 seconds left. Hemphill lost control of the ball trying to tie the game up with under 20 seconds to play and Central had to foul. Fort Hays State missed the first of a 1-and-1 attempt, and Holliday grabbed the rebound. After Hays used its last foul to give, that set up the final play.
Byford finished with six points on 3-for-8 shooting. He also had six rebounds and three blocks. Hemphill and Grayson each had five. Kole Talbott added seven, Jordan London three, and Cooper Clark two.
  •     The Ichabods are 1,559-1,066-2 (.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 582-272 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.
  •     The Ichabods are 433-87 (.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.
  •     The Ichabods will wrap up the regular season at Northeastern State on Feb. 24. Brackets and times will be announced on Feb. 24 after all of the games have been completed. Be sure to check back to wusports.com for schedule updates for times and opponents. The Ichabods will play on Friday in Kansas City at a time and against an opponent to be determined.