> The Washburn Ichabods return to Kansas City for their third game of the season when they travel to Mason-Halpin Fieldhouse to face the Rockhurst Hawks on Friday night.
> Washburn (2-0) is coming off a pair of wins at the Central Regional Challenge in Kansas City topping Minnesota State, who was picked to win the Northern Sun Conference, 78-71 in overtime and then Winona State, 67-54 the following day.
> The Ichabods are ranked No. 24 in the D2SIDA media poll  and received votes in the NABC Top 25 preseason poll.
> Rockhurst enters its home opener with an 0-2 record after falling 85-79 to Davenport (Mich.) and 71-67 to Purdue-Northwest last weekend at the GLIAC/GLVC Challenge in Grand Rapids, Mich.
> The Ichabods return two starters off of last season's 24-8 team which reached the MIAA Tournament Championship game and the NCAA Regional Quarterfinals while going 15-4 in the MIAA placing second in the regular season.
> The Ichabods were tabbed third in both the MIAA Preseason Coaches and Preseason Media Polls for the second year in a row which were released on Oct. 9 at the MIAA Basketball Media Day in Kansas City.
> Ichabod Marketing Director Matt Hutchinson played basketball at Rockhurst from 2012-2015, where he graduated with both his undergraduate and graduate degrees spending three years on current Rockhurst head coach Drew Diener's staff as an assistant, where he coordinated travel, budget, scouting, recruiting visits and programming.
  WASHBURN ICHABOD HEAD COACH BRETT BALLARD
>  is 48-18 in his third season as the Ichabods' head coach and 78-48 overall in his fifth year as a head coach.
>  has led the Ichabods to two NCAA postseason appearances in both seasons at Washburn.
>  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 1-1 against Rockhurst.
 
ROCKHURST HEAD COACH DREW DIENER
>  is in his fifth season on the Rockhurst bench and has gone 57-56.
>  he was coach for six seasons at Cardinal Stritch University where he was 169-44.
>  qualified for the national tournament in each of Diener's six seasons. The Wolves won the NAIA Division II national championship in 2013, and advanced to the Elite Eight in 2012 and the Sweet 16 in 2014 and 2015.
>  is 2-2 against the Ichabods.
  Washburn 67 (2-0)
WINONA STATE 54 (0-2)
Nov. 9, 2019
KANSAS CITY, Mo. – The Washburn Ichabods picked up their second win in as many days as they knocked off Winona State on day two of the Central Regional Challenge in Municipal Auditorium in a 67-54 win over the Warriors on Saturday afternoon.
The Ichabods jumped out to a lead of 17 points at 21-4 with 10:33 left to play in the first half before a 21-5 run by the Warriors cut the lead to one at 26-24 and Winona State (0-2) eventually would take the lead at 27-26 before leading by as many as four at 30-26 with 2:02 to play in the opening stanza. Tyler Geiman hit a 3-pointer with 2:00 to play to cut the lead to one at 30-29 as Washburn entered the half trailing for the first time this season.
The second half saw the Ichabods take the lead for good on a jumper in the paint by Jonny Clausing taking the lead at 31-30 with 18:31 to play and after a layup by the Warriors which cut the lead to two after a 3-pointer by Geiman, WSU would not get closer than four the rest of the way as the Ichabods pushed out to a 13-point lead on four different occasions in the second half leading to the win.
Geiman and Drew Maschoff each scored a game-high 15 points while Clasuing recorded his first double double at Washburn with career highs of 12 points and 10 rebounds. Maschoff also added nine rebounds and Keven Biggs had eight adding eight points. Geiman also had seven assists and three steals and Clasuing added two blocks.
Washburn shot 35 percent in the first half hitting 11 of 31 shots improving to 43 percent in the second half while holding the Warriors to 9 of 30 (30 percent) shooting in the second half. Washburn also owned a 46 to 35 advantage on the boards.
  > The Minnesota State men's basketball team has been selected to finish first in the NSIC Preseason Coaches' Poll.
>  Senior Cameron Kirksey was named the NSIC South Division Preseason Player of the Year. Last season, Kirksey averaged a team-best 17.7 points a game, to go along with 5.9 rebounds a game. He also shot 52.9% from the field, including a 43.4% showing from behind the arc. Kirksey passed the 20-point plateau 10 times last season, including a career-high 43 points against MSU Moorhead.
  > Friday's meeting will be the 62nd in the all-time series.
> Washburn leads the all-time series 32-29.
> Washburn has won 15 of the last 20 meetings,
> The Ichabods and the Hawks have only played seven times since the 2004-05 season with Washburn going 4-3, but played every year between 1992 and 1999.
> The Ichabods have won six of the last nine meetings played on the Hawks' home court falling in 2017 in Kansas City 89-87 in overtime.
> Overall the Ichabods are 10-19 in games played in Kansas City against the Hawks.
  WASHBURN 76
ROCKHURST 72
NovEMBER 14, 2018
TOPEKA, Kan. – Washburn's David Salach had two blocks in a 10-second stretch in the final 29 seconds of the game en route to a career-high six as the Ichabods rallied and then held off a Rockhurst comeback attempt in a 76-72 win over the Hawks in the home opener in Lee Arena on Wednesday night.
With Washburn (2-1) holding a 72-70 lead with 29 seconds to play, Salach blocked a shot by Curtis Lewis and then after an offensive rebound by the Hawks (1-2), Salach picked up another rejection and was fouled with 18 seconds to play and hit both free throws with 18 seconds to play staking the Ichabods to a 74-70 lead. Washburn then fouled a Hawk shooter with 12 seconds left and Lewis hit both free throws against cutting the lead back to two, but Javion Blake connected on both free throws with five seconds to play putting Washburn back up 76-72 as the Ichabods picked up the win.
Washburn trailed 35-33 at the break after leading by as many as nine in the first half at 24-15, but the Hawks came back to tie the score at 24 after a 9-0 run building a lead as many as the halftime deficit of two with a 3-pointer with 47 seconds to play in the half.
The Hawks pushed their lead to as many as seven in the second half with 17:53 to play, but the Ichabods clawed their way back using a traditional 3-point play by Tyler Geiman with 9:38 to go up 57-56.
Washburn went up 10 with 3:56 to play at 70-60, but the Hawks came back with a 10-2 run cutting the lead to two, but would not get any closer as the Ichabods picked up the win.
Blake led all scorers with 19 points tying his career-high with eight rebounds dishing out six assists. Tyas Martin had 15 points and Will McKee had 12 points and a career-high eight rebounds. Salach finished with six points, six blocks and five rebounds. 
Rockhurst was led by Lewis' 15 points.
Washburn finished 29 of 66 from the field for a 44 percent clip hitting 4 of 17 3-pointers and 14 of 16 free throws. Rockhurst was 23 of 57 for a 41 percent average and 7 of 24 from deep going 19 of 24 from the charity stripe.
Washburn had a 44 to 30 advantage in the paint and forced 20 Rockhurst turnovers leading to 15 points. The Ichabods had 36 rebounds with 10 on the offensive end gaining 12 second-chance points.
  PURDUE NORTHWEST 71
ROCKHURST 67
NOVEMBER 9, 2019
Rockhurst suffered its second loss in two days at the season-opening GLIAC/GLVC Challenge Saturday in Grand Rapids, Michigan.
Purdue Northwest rallied from a seven-point deficit in the second half to post a 71-67 victory over the Hawks.
The Pride went on a 26-12 run to take a 64-57 lead with three minutes remaining. Rockhurst never got closer than four points the rest of the way.
Nick Volz led the Hawks with 16 points and 11 rebounds. The sophomore forward scored on a three-point play to give Rockhurst a 45-38 lead with 15:08 left in the second half.
Junior transfer Lasse Gummerus came off the bench to score 14 points behind four 3-point field goals. Quinton Curry posted 10 points, five rebounds and three steals. Curtis Lewis totaled 10 points and four rebounds. Chris Hamil and Thomas Faber combined for 15 points.
The Hawks shot 43.9 percent from the field (25 of 57) and 71.4 percent from the foul line (10 of 14). The Pride shot 45.8 percent from the field and 58.3 percent on free throws.
  >  The Ichabods are 1588-1077-2 all-time in the 115th year in the program's history.
>  Washburn is the 10th-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 606-280 since joining the conference and the NCAA.
>  The Ichabods have recorded 28 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 446-89  (.848) all-time in Lee Arena.
>  The 2019-20 season marks the 35th 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.
  >  Washburn will its home slate on Nov. 20 against Ottawa in Lee Arena.