QUINCY, Ill. -- Washburn complimented a hot-shooting second quarter with a balanced offensive attack to win 80-64 over McKendree University on Friday evening in the first game of the Hansen Spear Funeral Home Classic. The Ichabods face the host Quincy Owls at 3 p.m. on Saturday.
Washburn (2-1) trailed by as many as three in the first quarter where the Bearcats (1-2) shot 50% and knocked down two 3-pointers. Yiibari Nwidadah scored the last bucket of the quarter to pull the Ichabods within one at 16-15.
Nwidadah started a 7-0 run for Washburn in the second quarter to go up by six. Aubree Dewey grew the lead to nine at the 5:27 mark with a driving layup to make it 29-20. The Ichabod lead got up to 11 on an Amaya Davison layup with 2:08 left to go before halftime as Washburn kept scoring, shooting 11-17 (64.7%) in the frame. McKendree got a bucket to go just before the break to make it 39-30.
The Bearcats started out the third quarter on a 6-2 run, cutting the lead to just five points but a pair of buckets by Aniah Wayne midway through the quarter settled the game down and McKendree never got closer the rest of the way. Both teams shot over 40% from the floor in the quarter that ended with Washburn holding a 59-49 lead over the Bearcats.
After McKendree got the lead down to eight points Wayne responded again with a 3-pointer on an assist from Dewey to go back up by 11 with 8:06 to go. The deficit never shrunk below nine the rest of the way and grew to a game-high 16 points with 2:11 to go on a layup by Nwidadah. She knocked down a pair of free throws with one minute remaining to finish up the scoring with Washburn winning 80-64.
The Ichabods shot 46.4% from the floor and were 7-17 (41.2%) from deep in their highest scoring game of the season. McKendree was efficient from the floor (44.4%) but 15 forced turnovers by Washburn to just seven committed turnovers by the Ichabods swung the game.
It was a balanced effort scoring the ball for Washburn with 10 players in the scoring column and seven scoring at least eight points. The Ichabod bench accounted for 35 points, outscoring the Bearcat bench by 18 points.
Aniah Wayne led the charge with 16 points on 6-10 shooting and was 4-6 from downtown. Yiibari Nwidadah had 10 points with 5 rebounds in just 14 minutes due to foul trouble. Liz Boyd scored a career-high 11 points on 5-8 shooting taking her place. Aubree Dewey tied a career high with nine assists and added eight points.
Clare Breden led all scorers with 17 points on 8-14 shooting while Naomi McDaniel had 15 points and 10 rebounds for a double double.
