•    The Washburn Ichabods are back in action on Tuesday night when they will host the Ottawa Braves at 7:30 p.m. in Lee Arena.
•    The Ichabods are coming off an 82-66 win over Rockhurst on Saturday afternoon in their home opener.
•    The Braves are 4-3 this season after falling to NAIA No. 7-ranked Oklahoma Wesleyan 59-55 on the road.
•    The game will count as an exhibition game for the Braves.
•    Ottawa opened its season with a 116-65 exhibition loss at Illinois on Oct. 20.
•    The Ichabods will be back in action after the Thanksgiving holiday on Saturday hosting Avila at 2 p.m.
•    The Ichabods have recorded 30, 20-win seasons and four under Ichabod head coach Brett Ballard in his six seasons receiving four NCAA postseasons berths.
•    The 2023-24 season marks the 119th season of Ichabod basketball. •    Sam Ungashick leads four Ichabods averaging in double figures this season at 16.5 ppg while averaging 5.0 assists, 4.8 rebounds and 1.3 steals per game. He has scored at least 20 in back to back games with 25 at William Jewell and 21 last time out against Rockhurst.
•    Andrew Orr is scoring 13.0 ppg this season going a perfect 10 of 10 from the free throw line.
•    Brady Christiansen is averaging 12.5 ppg with a team-high 7.0 rebounds per game hitting 8 of 17 3-point attempts.
•    Jack Bachelor is scoring 10.3 ppg off the bench adding 1.8 rpg and 3.3 apg.
•    Jake Schadegg is averaging 9.8 ppg shooting 9 of 16 from 3-point range.
•    Michael Keegan is scoring 4.5 ppg with 4.8 rpg and 1.5 bkpg.
•    Emmanuel Byrd is scoring 4.5 ppg adding 3.5 rpg and 1.0 spg.
•    Jarmell Johnson is averaging 2.8 ppg and 3.3 rpg with 1.0 spg.
•    Two other Ichabods (Bradyen Shorter and Zaid Dajani) both averaging 2.0 ppg.
•    The Ichabods are fifth in 3-point shooting in the national rankings at 52.9 percent hitting 34 of 72 attempts and they are ranked 24th in overall field goal percentage at 52 percent.
•    Sam Ungashick is ranked 14th in the nation and second in the MIAA in 3-point field goal percentage at 62.5 percent.
  WASHBURN ICHABOD HEAD COACH BRETT BALLARD ...
•    is 120-66 in his seventh season as the Ichabods' head coach and 151-94 overall in his ninth year as a head coach.
•    has led the Ichabods to four NCAA postseason appearances in six 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 and Tulsa basketball programs after working under head coach Danny Manning 2012-17 seasons.
•    he helped Wake Forest to its first NCAA Tournament appearance since the 2009-10 season following the 2016-17 season.
•    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.
•    he is 5-2 against Ottawa.
 
OTTAWA HEAD COACH AARON SIEBENTHALL ...
•    is 141-107 in his ninth season as the Braves head coach.
•    spent nine seasons as an assistant at Ottawa.
•    is 0-3 against the Ichabods.
  •    Ottawa is 4-3 this season after losing at No. 7-ranked Oklahoma Wesleyan on Saturday night and have lost two in a row overall.
•    Jayden Hibbitt leads the Braves in scoring, averaging 19.9 points per game … he is shooting 56 percent from the floor and 52 percent from behind the 3-pt line …… he was selected the KCAC Men's Basketball Offensive Player of the Week for his efforts against Jarvis Christian and TAMT after averaging 30 points, 6.5 rebounds, and 2.5 assists per game.
•    Angok Anyang is OU's leader in rebounding, averaging 8.7 rebounds per game. Deondre Buggage leads Ottawa in assists per game (3.7) and Kamren Woods is Ottawa's leader in steals (2.1) per game.
•    In seven games this season, Ottawa is averaging 81.9 points per game while opponents are scoring 78.3 points. OU is shooting 45.4 percent from the floor, 33.1 percent from behind the 3-pt line, and 72.3 percent from the free throw line. Opponents are shooting 43.5 percent from the floor, 35.5 percent from behind the 3-pt line, and 75.4 percent from the free throw line.
  •    The Ichabods lead the all-time series 57-17 with the 75th meeting coming up.
•    The Ichabods have won the last 24 meetings in the series and Washburn is 31-5 against the Braves in Topeka.
•    Ottawa's last win in the series came on Dec. 29, 1959 in an 85-68 win in Ottawa.
•    Ottawa's last win in Topeka came on Jan. 27, 1952 in a 79-53 victory.
  (Nov. 26, 2022) TOPEKA, Kan. – The Washburn Ichabods put a bow on their non-conference schedule with a 96-63 win over Ottawa on Saturday afternoon in Lee Arena.
The Ichabods (3-3) never trailed in the game jumping out to a 17-5 lead over the first 6-plus minutes of the game hitting 7 of 12 shots and 3 of 6 shots from deep with Levi Braun leading the charge scoring eight points with a pair of 3's enroute to 21 points on the day tying a career high. Washburn would go on to lead by as many as 18 midway through the first half before an 8-0 run by the Braves (4-4) trimmed the lead back to 10 at 39-29 with 2:38 to play in the frame until the Ichabods came back with a 9-3 run of their own to close out the half with a 16-point lead at 48-32.
Washburn would go on to lead by 35 with under a minute to play after shooting 16 of 27 from the field at a 60 percent clip as well as a 14 of 17 performance at the free throw line cruising to the 33-point win.
Following Braun's 21 points on 7 of 10 shooting going 6 of 8 from 3-point range, Connor Deffebaugh scored 17 and Andrew Orr and Jayden Hibbitt each had 13 off the bench. Brady Christiansen had nine points in his first career start and Orr had nine boards.
Ty Bland had 13 points off the bench to lead the Braves.
Washburn shot 54 percent from the field for the game hitting 34 of 63 shots going 20 of 25 from the free throw line.
Washburn outrebounded the Braves 41 to 27 turning 17 offensive rebounds into 18 points. The Ichabods also had a 48 to 24 advantage in points in the paint and scored 36 points off of 18 Brave turnovers.
  (Nov. 18, 2023) TOPEKA, Kan. – The Washburn Ichabod men's basketball team improved to 39-1 all-time in season home openers winning its 33rd in a row leading from start to finish with an 82-66 win over Rockhurst on Saturday afternoon in Lee Arena. 
Washburn led from start to finish using a 12 to 1 spurt midway through the first half building a 23-11 lead off a 3-pointer by Jack Bachelor – who scored eight points during the Ichabod run. Rockhurst (1-2) cut the lead down to five at 32-27 with 3:21 to go in the opening frame, but Washburn closed the half with a 12 to 5 run taking a 44-32 lead into intermission.
Washburn shot 59 percent in the first half on 17 of 29 shooting while holding Rockhurst to 34 percent on 9 of 26 shooting.
A Hawks' 3-pointer by Brian Hawthorne pulled Rockhurst within 10 at 59-49 with 13:13 to play, but a 10-0 Ichabod run pushed the lead to 20 and Rockhurst did not get closer than 13 the rest of the way.
Sam Ungashick led the Ichabods with 21 points adding eight rebounds and five assists. He finished 8 of 13 from the field. He paced four other Ichabods in double figures with Andrew Orr scoring 12, Brady Christiansen scoring 11 and Jack Bachelor scoring 10 with five assists.
Hawthorne led the Hawks with 15 points.
Washburn finished 31 of 59 from the field shooting 53 percent and the Hawks were 21 of 60 for 35 percent shooting. Washburn also held a 42 to 31 advantage on the glass. The Ichabods outscored Rockhurst 42 to 14 in the paint and 30 to 17 in fastbreak points.        •    The Ichabods are 1,660-1,125-2 all-time in the 118th year in the program's history.
•    Washburn is the 10th-winningest program in NCAA Division II history by victories.
•    Washburn is 676-317 since joining the conference and the NCAA.
•    The Ichabods have recorded 30 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 16 NCAA Tournament bids going to three Elite Eight's appearing in the 2001 NCAA National Championship game.
  •    The Ichabods are 488-102 (.848) all-time in Lee Arena.
•    The 2022-23 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 wrap up the non-conference slate with Avila on Nov. 25 before opening MIAA play on Dec. 2 at Emporia State.