KANSAS CITY, Mo. —The 50th season of Washburn women's basketball season came to end on Saturday against No. 3 Fort Hays State following a 75-48 loss in the MIAA Championship semifinal at Municipal Auditorium. With the result, the Ichabods slipped to 20-10 on the year after finishing the fourth in the MIAA standings at 14-5.

The Washburn offense struggled in the first half as it shot a combined 6-of-26 from the field en route to a season-low 17 field goals. The Ichabods held a narrow three-point lead early in the opening period, but it quickly evaporated as the Tigers converted on nine of their first 11 three-pointers.

The shooting grew colder in the second as Washburn was held to one field goal during the period before going into the halftime break trailing, 43-18.

In the third, the Ichabod offense thawed as it outscored Fort Hays State, 17-15. Nicole Murugarren and Taylor Blue combined for a 6-0 spurt before Washburn contributions from Annette Warner, Hunter Bentley and Alexis McAfee stretching the run to 14-2 and reducing the once 31-point deficit to 51-32.

The hole however was too deep for Washburn crawl out of as Fort Hays State took the fourth, 17-13. 

Blue paced the offense with 15 points, as the senior pushed her career total to 607 points. Junior Reagan Phelan also had double-figures as she registered 11, pushing her season total to 321, while moving up to 14th with 1,093 career points. 

Annette Warner's three blocks meanwhile pushed the junior's season total to 49, tying Amanda Holmes (2007-08) and Cassie Lombardino (2010-11) for fourth on the single-season list and nudged the total team to ninth with 111.