•The Washburn Ichabods will continue their five-game homestand opening MIAA play hosting Fort Hays State on Wednesday in Lee Arena at 7:30 p.m.
•The Ichabods wrapped up their non-conference slate with a 79-69 win over Benedictine last time out on Saturday winning their 25th game in a row over the Ravens.
•Fort Hays State is 4-0 this season having a game canceled recording wins over Arkansas Tech, Southwestern Oklahoma State, Central Christian and Manhattan Christian.
•The Ichabods hold a 98-70 series advantage over the Tigers and have won the last six in a row.
•Washburn is 62-21 in games played in Topeka and have two straight in Lee Arena.
•The Washburn/Fort Hays State series is the third-most played rivalry in Ichabod history with the 169th game coming up this week. Washburn has only played Emporia State (214 games) and Pittsburg State (185 games) the most of any series with any school.
•The Ichabods are 23-9 in MIAA openers and 4-0 in conference openers under head coach Brett Ballard.
•The 2021-22 season marks the 117th season of Ichabod basketball.
•Washburn was picked second both the MIAA Coaches and Media preseason polls. •Jalen Lewis leads the team in scoring at 15.8 ppg and in minutes played at 30.5 per game.
•Michael Keegan is scoring at 11.3 ppg and rebounds at 4.2 rpg as well as steals at 1.3 per game … he scored a career-high 17 points against Benedictine hitting three 3-pointers with a career-high eight rebounds.
•Connor Deffebaugh is scoring 8.3 ppg and scored a career-high 17 against Benedictine last time out recording six rebounds with three assists.
•Jeremy Harrell is third on the team in scoring at 8.5 ppg in 17.0 minutes per game.
•Through six games this season the Ichabods have used five different starting line ups … only Michael Keegan and Jalen Lewis have started all of the games so far this season.
•Tyler Geiman became the 26th member of Washburn's 1,000-point club at Missouri Western last season … his career total is 1,394 in 116 career games, which is ninth all-time on the Ichabod chart … next on the chart is Dan Buie who scored 1,484 in two seasons from 1995-97.
•Jalen Lewis is currently 17th on the Ichabod all-time scoring chart with 1,111 career points in 94 career games … Lewis also became only the sixth Ichabod to go over the 200 made 3-pointers mark now sitting with 210 which ranks fourth trailing Javion Blake's (122 games) and Todd Alexander's (93 games) 212 career 3-pointers and all-time leader Shannon Kruger who hit 242 in 122 games.
  WASHBURN ICHABOD HEAD COACH BRETT BALLARD
•is 85-41 in his fifth season as the Ichabods' head coach and 118-71 overall in his eighth year as a head coach.
•has led the Ichabods to three NCAA postseason appearances in four full 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 6-0 against Fort Hay State.
 
FORT HAYS STATE HEAD COACH MARK JOHNSON
•is the all-time coaching wins leader in FHSU history with a career record of 387-197 in his 21st season at FHSU, ranking among the top 30 active NCAA Division II men's basketball coaches in winning percentage (.667).
•has led the Tigers to seven NCAA Tournament appearances in his time at FHSU.
•became the all-time wins leader in Fort Hays State history on January 11, 2014 in a victory at home over Lincoln University, recording his 258th win.
•he reached his 300th career win on February 13, 2016 in a victory at Missouri Southern.
•has coached four All-Americans, 54 all-conference selections, a conference player of the year, a conference freshman of the year, and three conference defensive players of the year in his time at FHSU.
•is 14-17 against Washburn.
  •The Tigers are 4-0 after topping Manhattan Christian 83-34 last time out on Nov. 28.
•In the win over MCC, the Tigers held the Thunder to 10 second half points and 2 of 28 shooting from the field.
•All-MIAA returner Jared Vitztum leads three Tigers averaging double figures with 11.3 ppg adding 11.0 rpg. Kaleb Hammeke is scoring 10.8 ppg and Nyjee Wright is scoring 10.3 ppg.
•The Tigers are shooting 46 percent from the field and 35 percent from 3-point range and 67 percent from the free throw line.
•As a team, the Tigers are averaging 76.5 ppg while allowing 46.8 ppg. (Nov. 28, 2021) TOPEKA, Kan. – The Washburn Ichabods wrapped up the non-conference portion of their schedule with a 79-69 win over Benedictine on Saturday night in Lee Arena closing the game on a 13-3 run over the final 4:17 to pull away from a pesky Raven squad for Washburn's 25th win in a row over the visitors from Atchison.
After the Ravens (6-3) tied the score with 4:17 to play, Connor Deffebaugh kick started an 11-0 run with a step back jumper and a 3-pointer followed by two more free throws putting the Ichabods up 73-66 with 3:01 remaining. A pair of free throws by Jalen Lewis pushed the lead to nine at 75-66 with 2:20 left and a jumper by Michael Keegan with 1:52 to go put the Ichabods up 11. A free throw by the Ravens with 1:25 to go cut the lead to 10, but two more free throws by Deffebaugh for his career-high 16th and 17th points of the night stretched the lead back to 12 before a tip in at the buzzer cut the final margin back to 10.
Washburn led 36-33 at the break after trailing by as many as seven in the first half with 5:42 to go, but the Ichabods (3-3) closed the frame on a 13-3 run taking the 3-point margin into the locker room
Deffebaugh scored 17 along with Keegan who scored a career-high 17 on 7 of 9 shooting adding a career-high 17 with eight rebounds. Jalen Lewis scored 16 points with career-highs of eight rebounds and five assists in the win.
Matt Austin led the Ravens with 23 points taking game-high honors and Jayden Temme scored 11.
Washburn held the Ravens to 37 percent shooting in the game as they hit 20 of 54 shots overall. Washburn finished at 50 percent going 28 of 56 from the field hitting 10 of 22 shots from 3-point range. The Ravens were 11 of 31 from deep. From the line, the Ichabods were 13 of 15 while Benedictine was 18 of 23.
The Ichabods held a 38 to 27 advantage on the glass turning 10 offensive rebounds into 10 points. Washburn also outscored the Ravens 32 to 18 in the paint and 14 to 2 in Fastbreak points.
  •Washburn leads the all-time series 98-70 and Wednesday's meeting will be the 169th between the two schools.
•The Ichabods have won 15 of the last 19 in the series and the last six overall.
•In Lee Arena, the Ichabods are 22-7 all-time against Fort Hays State going 10-12 in road games since joining the MIAA.
•Fort Hays State is 5-2 against WU in overtime games.
•The Ichabods are 3-0 against Fort Hays State in the MIAA Tournament including a 77-53 semifinal win in the 2018 event in Kansas City. (Nov. 19, 2020) HAYS, Kan. – Jalen Lewis' 3-pointer at the buzzer sent the Washburn Ichabods to an 80-78 win over Fort Hays State as Washburn opened the 2020-21 season with a bang in its conference opener.
The Tigers hit a 3-pointer with nine seconds to play in the game by Jared Vitztum putting FHSU up 78-77. But after a timeout by the Ichabods, a deflection put the ball out of bounds with 2 seconds to play setting up the game-winner by Lewis, who finished with 15 points in the game. The Ichabods were 3 of 3 from deep the final 2:19 of the game going 3 of 4 from the field overall.
The lchabods led at the break 38-34 after building a lead of 14 at 27-13 with 8:04 to play in the opening half. The Tigers then used a 12-2 run cutting the lead to four at 29-25 with 4:23 remaining in the half. The Ichabods pushed the lead back to as many as eight prior to the Tigers hitting back-to-back 3's trimming the lead back to four. Washburn hit 3 of its first 5 3-point attempts before going 4 of 10 to end the opening frame.
The Ichabods (1-0) shot 54 percent in the second half going 7 of 14 from the 3-point line finished 14 of 29 overall from deep. The Tigers (0-1) were 11 of 20 from deep and 10 of 11 from the free throw line going 13 of 14 overall. The Ichabods were 10 of 19 from the free throw line.
Washburn was led by Tyler Geiman and Drew Maschoff who each had 20 points. Geiman finished with nine assists and five rebounds while Maschoff had a team-high six rebounds and three steals.
Vitztum led the Tigers with 16 points.
  •The Ichabods are 1624-1100-2 all-time in the 117th 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 642-297 since joining the conference and the NCAA.
•The Ichabods have recorded 29 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 15 NCAA Tournament bids going to three Elite Eight's appearing in the 2001 NCAA National Championship game.
  • The Ichabods are 467-96 (.848) all-time in Lee Arena.
• The 2021-22 season marks the 38th season of play in Lee Arena.
• The Ichabods are 37-1 all-time in home openers.
• The Ichabods recorded a school-best 28-game winning streak from Nov. 19, 1993 to Feb. 8, 1995 in Lee Arena.
  •Washburn will face Nebraska-Kearney on Dec. 4 in Topeka continuing MIAA play.