TOPEKA, Kan. – The Washburn Ichabod men's basketball team wrapped up the home slate with an 81-69 win over Missouri Southern sweeping the season series with the Lions and winning their fifth game in a row overall as Ichabod head coach Brett Ballard won his 100^th game on the Washburn sidelines. The Ichabods will take on Emporia State on Saturday in the regular season finale.
 
Washburn (18-9, 15-6 MIAA), who was ranked No. 9 in the latest NCAA Central Region poll, trailed by its largest margin in the game at four points at 6-2 with 17:33 to play in the opening half before a 13-2 run over the next six-plus minutes pushed the Ichabods out to a 26-16 lead with 6:29 to play in the half. A 9-2 spurt by the Lions (14-13, 11-10 MIAA) cut the lead to three with two minutes to play before the half before the Ichabods scored five straight to take a 36-28 lead into the break.
 
After a 3-pointer by Michael Keegan to open the second half scoring stretched the Ichabod lead to 11, the Lions whittled the lead down to five at 44-39 with 15:33 to go, but a 12-2 run by the Ichabods moved the lead to 15 but the Lions would not get any closer than nine the rest of the way. Washburn did connect on 11 of its final 12 free throws the final 2:12 of the game after Missouri Southern was down by 14.
 
Washburn led by as many as 18 in the game en route to the 12-point win over the Lions as the Ichabods swept the season series for the first time since the 2005-06 season as Washburn improved to 24-8 all-time against the Lions in Lee Arena.
 
Tyler Geiman led the Ichabods with 23 points scoring 17 in the first half adding eight rebounds, four assists and two steals. He passed Will McNeil for fifth on the Ichabod all-time scoring chart with 1,705 points. Jalen Lewis scored 18 points while Connor Deffebaugh had 15 and Jonny Clausing had 11 points. Clausing also added two blocks.
 
Missouri Southern was led by Avery Taggart who scored a game-high 26 points hitting four 3-pointers and RJ Smith scored 16 and Winston Dessesow had 12 before fouling out.
 
Washburn shot 42 percent in the game hitting 25 of 59 shots overall and went 25 of 31 from the free throw line including 17 of 22 in the second half. The Lions were 23 of 63 from the field for a 37 percent average and was 10 of 33 from 3-point range and 13 of 17 from the charity stripe. Both teams finished with 39 rebounds.
 
The Ichabods outscored the Lions 36 to 12 in the paint and 29 to 7 in bench points.
 
Notes:
Brett Ballard is now 100-47 in his fifth season as the Ichabod head coach … The winner of Saturday's Washburn / Emporia State game will be the four seed at the MIAA Postseason Tournament while other will be the five seed as the teams will play each other in back to back games starting Saturday in Emporia and then on Friday night in Kansas City's historic Municipal Auditorium at 6 p.m. … The Ichabods went 10-4 in games played in Lee Arena this season … the 641 3-pointers attempted this season is fifth on the Ichabod single-season chart … the game marked the final home game for Tyler Geiman, Jalen Lewis, Jeremy Harrell, Jonny Clausing, Shannon Cordes and Isaiah Thorne … the win was the fourth in a row over Missouri Southern in the series, which the Ichabods now lead 51-36 … the win was also Tyler Geiman's 100^th win in an Ichabod uniform.