KANSAS CITY, Mo. – The Washburn Ichabods battled back from a 10-point deficit with 3:46 to go in the game and had a chance to tie the score with under a second to go but the Ichabods came up short in a 79-77 loss to Minnesota State Moorhead in its final game of the Central Regional Challenge on Sunday afternoon in Municipal Auditorium. Washburn will return to action back in the KC area when they will face William Jewell on Wednesday at 7 p.m.
With the Ichabods (1-1) down 73-63,
Andrew Orr scored on a layup and after the teams traded free throws,
Michael Keegan scored three-straight points for Washburn. The first coming on a free throw with 2:35 to go and then on a driving lay up with 1:49 remaining cutting the lead back to five at 74-69.
Sam Ungashick hit a lay-up of his own with 1:20 to play trimming the lead down to three at 74-71. After a Dragons (2-0) free throw with 41 seconds to play that stretched their lead back to four, Orr connected on another lay-up pulling Washburn back to two points down with 29 seconds to go.
After two more charities by the Dragons to go up 77-73,
Jarmell Johnson hit a free throw followed by a free throw by MSUM pushing the lead back to four at 78-74.
Brady Christiansen hit a guarded 3-pointer with five seconds to go as Washburn cut the lead back to one point. After a foul by Washburn, the Dragons hit one of two free throws and Johnson was fouled on a drive with 0.3 seconds to play. The Ichabods missed the first free throw and intentionally missed the second, but did not secure the ball in the 2-point loss. Overall, the Dragons hit 4 of 6 free throws in the final 21 seconds.
The game was tied at 36 at the break as the Ichabods shot 50 percent from the field and hit 6 of 8 3-pointers, but committed 13 turnovers in the first half and 21 for the game compared to eight for the Dragons overall.
Christiansen led the Ichabods with 18 points adding six rebounds going 4 of 6 from deep pacing five Washburn players in double figures.
Sam Ungashick scored 13 with six points and
Jack Bachelor had 11 points and a game-high five assists. Orr finished with 10 points and eight boards and
Jake Schadegg had 10 points.
Jacob Beeninga led the Dragons with 20 points.
Washburn finished the game shooting 51 percent from the field on 25 of 49 shooting connecting on 52 percent in the second half on 12 of 23 shooting. Washburn was 14 of 24 from the free throw line in the second half going 18 of 30 overall.
