TOPEKA, Kan. -- The Washburn women's basketball team struggled offensively Thursday night as the Ichabods fell to Missouri Western, 58-47, in Lee Arena. With the loss, the Ichabods drop to 7-6 (1-3 MIAA) while the Griffons improve to 12-2 (4-1 MIAA). The Ichabods will close out the week at home against Northwest Missouri on Saturday, Jan. 9, with a 1 p.m. tip.
Washburn finished with its lowest shooting percentage of the season at 30.4 percent (17-of-56) while Missouri Western finished slightly better at 39.6 percent (21-of-53). Neither team shot well from behind the arc as the Griffons were 4-for-12 (33.3 percent) and the Ichabods were 5-for-21 (23.8 percent).The Griffons finished with a 47-32 advantage in rebounds and grabbed 12 offensive boards to the Ichabods' seven.
It was a slow start to the game for both teams as the first basket wasn't scored until the 7:45 mark by the Griffons. Alexis McAfee answered with a jump shot 70 seconds later to knot up the score at 2-2, but Missouri Western broke the tie and took a lead it would hold for the rest of the game. The Griffons took a double-digit 30-20 lead into the locker room while holding the Ichabods to just 23.3 percent shooting.
Washburn came out in the second half on a 6-0 scoring run to cut the deficit to four points and a made triple by McAfee with 4:13 on the clock in the third quarter would get the score within four yet again, but that's as close as it would get for Washburn as Missouri Western added to its lead. The Griffons held a double-figure lead for most of the final period and led by as much as 14 before McAfee hit another three-pointer with seven seconds left in regulation to make the final score 58-47.
McAfee scored a team-high 13 points, going 5-for-12 from the floor, and also handed out four assists. Hunter Bentley added 10 points for the Ichabods and grabbed eight rebounds. Reagan Phelan finished with nine points and three assists.
Chris Wilson was 7-for-12 from the field and led the Griffons offensively with 15 points and also contributed eight rebounds.
