Washburn basketball tickets are now sold ONLINE ONLY! You can no longer buy tickets at a ticket window. You can purchase online tickets up until the game sells out or the game ends. • The Washburn Ichabods return to action on Saturday afternoon at 3 p.m. facing Nebraska-Kearney in Lee Arena.
• The Ichabods (3-4, 0-1 MIAA) are coming off a 68-58 loss to Fort Hays State in their MIAA opener.
• The Lopers (3-3, 0-1 MIAA) fell last time out at Emporia State on Thursday night in Emporia in an 81-70 loss.
• The Ichabods trail the all-time series with the Lopers 25-21 and won the last meeting on Nov. 21, 2020 in Kearney 73-62.
• The game will be the first played in Topeka since Jan. 16, 2019 in an 89-58 win over the Lopers.
• 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 14.4 ppg and in minutes played at 31.7 per game.
• Michael Keegan is scoring at 11.6 ppg and rebounds at 4.6 rpg as well as steals at 1.4 per game and blocks at 1.1 per game.
• Connor Deffebaugh is scoring 8.4 ppg and has averaged 13.0 ppg with 4.5 rpg and 2.5 apg in his last two games.
• Jeremy Harrell is third on the team in scoring at 8.3 ppg in 17.0 minutes per game.
• Through seven 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. Geiman has played only two minutes this season (in the first game of the year) due to an injury.
• Jalen Lewis is currently 17th on the Ichabod all-time scoring chart with 1,117 career points in 95 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.
• Against Fort Hays State Michael Keegan had a career-high three blocks and tied a career high with five free throws and six free throw attempts.
• Against Fort Hays State Andrew Orr also had career highs of six rebounds and two blocks as well as seven field goals made.
  WASHBURN ICHABOD HEAD COACH BRETT BALLARD
• is 85-42 in his fifth season as the Ichabods' head coach and 118-72 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 5-1 against the Lopers.
 
NEBRASKA-KEARNEY HEAD COACH KEVIN LOFT
• is in his 17th year as head coach at Nebraska-Kearney after being promoted from co-head coach.
• in his seventh season as the lone head coach on the squad, he has gone 94-83.
• has recorded a 250-208 overall mark at UNK in his 17th season.
• is 10-6 against Washburn.
  • Neb.-Kearney is 3-3 on the season and 0-1 in MIAA play after losing at Emporia State on Thursday 81-70.
• Austin Luger leads the team in scoring at 15.0 ppg while David Simental is scoring 14.3 ppg, Darrian Nebeker is scoring 14.2 ppg and Sean Evans is scoring 11.8 ppg.
• Nebeker leads the team in rebounds at 6.0 per game. (Dec. 1, 2021) TOPEKA, Kan. – The Washburn Ichabod men's basketball team fell in its MIAA opener to Fort Hays State 68-58 on Wednesday night in a game which the two teams combined for 47 fouls.
The Ichabods (3-4, 0-1 MIAA) jumped out to a 6-0 lead on basketball from three different players and would go on to lead 14-10 after the first media timeout before the Tigers (5-0, 1-0 MIAA) used a 7-0 run to take a 17-14 lead. After Washburn regained the lead at 20-17 with 8:33 to play, the Tigers used an 11-3 run pushing their lead to five at 28-23 eventually going up seven taking a 36-29 lead into the break.
To start the second half, the Ichabods cut the lead to 41-38 via a 9-3 run but over the next 10 minutes the Tigers moved their lead to as many as 11 at 55-44 with 6:16 to play. Washburn however outscored the Tigers 10-2 over the next 2:57 cutting the margin to three at 57-54 on a 3-pointer by Isaiah Thorne.
Fort Hays State finished the game with an 11-4 spurt hitting 9 of 11 free throws down the stretch taking the 10-point win snapping a six-game winning streak over the Tigers.
Washburn was led by Andrew Orr who scored a career-high 14 points hitting all seven of his field goal attempts adding six rebounds and two blocks. Michael Keegan had 13 points with seven rebounds and three blocks adding two assists. Thorne had a career-high six assists scoring seven points.
The Tigers were led by Nyjee Wright who had 15 and Jared Vitztum who scored 14.
Washburn finished 21 of 52 from the field hitting 3 of 14 shots from 3-point range and 13 of 19 free throws overall. The Tigers were 24 of 34 from the free throw line hitting 19 of 53 overall shots and 6 of 23 from deep.
The Tigers had a 38 to 31 advantage on the glass turning 12 offensive rebounds into 11 second chance points.
The 47 combined fouls were the most since the Ichabods and Missouri Western had 47 in a game on Jan. 9, 2021.
  • Saturday's meeting will be the 47th in the series and the Lopers lead 25-21.
• The Ichabods won the last meeting in Kearney.
• All-time in games in Kearney, the Ichabods are 7-17.
• Washburn leads 13-7 in games played in Topeka.
• The Ichabods have won five of the last six meetings.
• The two teams have only played twice in the MIAA Tournament with the teams splitting a pair of games.   (Nov. 21, 2020) KEARNEY, Neb. – The Washburn Ichabods used a big first half run and pressure defense forcing 19 Nebraska-Kearney turnovers improving to 2-0 in a 73-62 win over the Lopers.
After trailing 10-9 with 11:01 to play in the first half the Ichabods (2-0, 2-0 MIAA) ripped off a 27-8 run to finish the half getting defensive holding the Lopers to 3 of 14 shooting including 1 of 7 from 3-point range. In the middle of the big run was a 16-0 spurt by Washburn as they shot 10 of 19 from the field and 4 of 7 from 3-point range after falling behind by one.
In the second half the Lopers (0-2, 0-2 MIAA) cut the lead to 11 at 51-40 with 9:43 to go in the game outscored UNK 14-6 over the next 4:38 pushing the lead back to 16 capped by a dunk by Jonny Clausing.
Clausing led all scorers with a game-high 25 points going 10 of 14 from the field adding five rebounds. Tyler Geiman had 13 points with eight assists, five rebounds and two steals. Drew Maschoff scored 16 points and Connor Deffebaugh had a career-high eight rebounds scoring three.
Darren Nebeker led the Lopers with 17 points.
Washburn scored 50 of their 75 points in the paint while the Lopers scored 22. Washburn finished 29 of 62 from the field for a 47 percent clip holding the Lopers to 20 of 53 from the field. The Lopers were 8 of 31 from 3-point range while the Ichabods connected on 4 of 17.
  • The Ichabods are 1624-1101-2 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 642-298 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 467-97 (.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.
  • The Ichabods will hit the road for MIAA match-ups at Central Oklahoma on Dec. 9 and at Newman on Dec. 11 before returning home to host Rogers State on Dec. 18 and then finish off the first semester of action with Northeastern State on Dec. 20 in a rare 2 p.m. Monday afternoon start.