•    The Washburn Ichabods will continue their longest road trip of the season as they will face Nebraska-Kearney on Saturday at 4 p.m. inside the Heath and Sports Center on the UNK campus.
•    The Ichabods will not be in action at home until Feb. 7 against Missouri Western.
•    Washburn (12-6, 8-4 MIAA) fell at Fort Hays State on Thursday night in a 71-58 loss to the Tigers.
•    Nebraska-Kearney (5-12, 2-10 MIAA) will be looking to snap a seven-game losing streak hosting the Ichabods after dropping to 4-5 after Emporia State topped the Lopers on Thursday night 77-58.
•    The Ichabods received votes in the latest NABC Top 25 Coaches Poll.
•    Saturday's meeting will be the 49th in the series and the Lopers lead 25-23.
•    The Ichabods have won three straight in the series.
•    All-time in games in Kearney, the Ichabods are 7-17.
•    The Ichabods are first in the MIAA in scoring averaging 78.7 ppg and Nebraska-Kearney is ranked 14th in the MIAA in scoring defense allowing 83.6 ppg.
•    The Ichabods have recorded 30, 20-win seasons and four under Ichabod head coach Brett Ballard in his six seasons receiving four NCAA postseason berths.
•    The 2023-24 season marks the 119th season of Ichabod basketball. •    Sam Ungashick leads the Ichabods in scoring averaging 13.8 ppg averaging 3.7 rebounds, 3.0 assists and 1.5 steals per game … he leads the team with team with 27 steals and has reached double-figure scoring in 12 of 18 games.
•    Andrew Orr is scoring 13.3 ppg this season going 49 of 56 from the free throw line  which ranks 31st in the nation in percentage at 87.5 … he is shooting 56 percent from the field hitting 95 of 169 attempts … he is seventh in the MIAA in field goal percentage.
•    Jack Bachelor is scoring 12.5 ppg this season and leads the team with 60 assists and was named the MIAA Player of the Week for the week of Jan. 8 … he is 7 of 14 from 3-point range in the last three games.
•    Brady Christiansen is averaging 8.2 ppg with a team-high 6.7 rpg … he has hit 11-straight free throws.
•    Jarmell Johnson is averaging 7.8 ppg and 3.3 rpg he tied a season-high with seven rebounds against Pittsburg State last week.
•    Michael Keegan is scoring 7.4 ppg with 5.8 rpg and averaging 7.9 ppg with 6.1 rpg in MIAA play …  he is shooting 51 percent from the field hitting 51 of 100 shots.
•    Jake Schadegg is averaging 5.6 ppg and 1.6 apg … he is 11 of 15 from the free throw line this season.
•    Brayden Shorter is averaging 4.9 scoring and 2.2 rpg.
•    Emmanuel Byrd is scoring 4.6 ppg with 3.7 rpg recording a career-high three blocks against Fort Hays State last time out.
•    Zaid Dajani is scoring 1.8 ppg and Kevin Eman is averaging 0.8 ppg.
•    The Ichabods are 10th in the nation in and first in the MIAA 3-point shooting 37.9 percent hitting 138 of 348 attempts … Washburn is second the MIAA in 3-pointers made per game at 8.1 per contest.
•    The Ichabods are first in the MIAA in scoring averaging 78.7 ppg and ranked ninth in scoring defense allowing 71.3 ppg.
•    Washburn is +7.3 in rebounding margin this season which leads the MIAA and ranked 13th nationally … the Ichabods also leading the MIAA in total rebounds at 38.6 per game.
•    Against the Tigers it was the first time this season the Ichabods had led at the half and lost a game.
•    The Ichabods will be without Jordan Vincent, Bradley Lightbourne, Tyson Ruud and Zach Davidson who will miss the season after injuries, surgeries or recovering from recent surgeries.
  WASHBURN ICHABOD HEAD COACH BRETT BALLARD ...
•    is 130-70 in his seventh season as the Ichabods' head coach and 163-100 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 7-1 against Nebraska-Kearney.
 
NEBRASKA-KEARNEY INTERIM HEAD COACH ANTOINE YOUNG …
•    is 5-12 in his first year as interim head coach at Nebraska-Kearney.
•    was part of the coaching staff for six seasons joining the Lopers in the summer of 2018.
•    he played collegiality at Creighton and spent two years at Pittsburg State as the graduate assistant coach  working under head coaches Kim Anderson and Kevin Muff, helping Pitt win 22 games and reach the 2018 league tournament. Young also coached two All-MIAA players.
•    is 0-0 against Washburn.
  •    The Lopers are 5-12 this season and 2-10 in MIAA and have lost their last seven games.
•    Damiri Lindo leads four Lopers in double-figure scoring at 12.6 ppg …he has hit 20 of 51 3-pointers and has gone 22 of 27 from the free throw line.
•    D'Aundre Samuels is scoring 11.9 ppg followed by Sean Evans at 11.7 ppg and Sean Murphy at 11.2 ppg adding a team-high 8.0 rpg.
•    The Lopers are eighth in the MIAA in scoring offense at 73.5 ppg and 14th in scoring defense allowing 83.6 ppg.
  •    Saturday's meeting will be the 49th in the series and the Lopers lead 25-23.
•    The Ichabods won the last meeting in Topeka and have three straight in the series.
•    All-time in games in Kearney, the Ichabods are 7-17.
•    Washburn leads 15-7 in games played in Topeka.
•    The Ichabods have won six of the last seven overall meetings.
•    The two teams have only played twice in the MIAA Tournament with the teams splitting a pair of games.
  (Jan. 21, 2023) TOPEKA, Kan. -- Washburn (8-9, 5-6) got off to a slow start offensively but was able to stretch its winning streak to three games in a row with a 65-62 win over Nebraska at Kearney on Saturday afternoon behind 25 points from Tyler Nelson. 
Andrew Orr had the only two points for the Ichabods through the first six and a half minutes of play as they fell behind 9-2 early on. Washburn reeled off a 12-0 run to tie and take the lead after free throws from Michael Keegan at the 9:17 mark of the first half. 
The Ichabods led for most of the remainder of the first half but a last second 3-pointer by the Lopers tied the game at 29 heading into halftime. 
Both offenses picked up after halftime, a 10-2 run for Washburn capped off by a 3-pointer from Tyler Nelson gave them a five-point lead, the largest of the game for the Ichabods to that point. Washburn's biggest lead of the game came at the 10:45 mark of the second half following a layup by Brady Christiansen. 
The Lopers responded with a 6-0 run in under a minute to tie the game at 48. Washburn scored the next basket to go on top and it was the final lead change of the day. The Ichabods lead never grew higher than four points in the final 10 minutes. 
In the final three and a half minutes Nebraska-Kearney cut the lead to two points twice. Each time Tyler Nelson had a response for Washburn, first with a jump shot and then two free throws in the final 30 seconds, pushing the lead to four.
The Lopers hit a three on the other end cutting the lead to one. Levi Braun knocked down two free throws with seven seconds to go and the final 3-point attempt from Nebraska-Kearney came up short. 
The Ichabods shot only 36.1% from the floor, and 18.2% from deep (4-22) but were able to hold the Lopers to just 36.2% shooting overall. The difference for Washburn came at the free throw line where they shot 17-19 compared to Nebraska-Kearney going 10-14 at the stripe. 
Tyler Nelson tied his career high with 25 points, as well as tied the team lead with three assists. Andrew Orr finished with 12 points on 6-8 shooting and Michael Keegan had 10 points on 6-6 shooting from the line. Brady Christiansen chipped in six points with 12 rebounds off the bench. 
Darrian Nebeker led the Lopers with 22 points and seven assists while Sean Evans had 19 points, nine rebounds and four 3-pointers.          HAYS, Kan. – The Washburn Ichabods had their three-game winning streak snapped in a 71-58 loss at Fort Hays State on Thursday night in Gross Memorial Coliseum.
The Ichabods (12-6, 8-4 MIAA) led 35-34 at the half after the Tigers (14-4, 9-3 MIAA) ended the frame on a 7-0 run holding the Washburn scoreless the final 2:21 of the opening stanza. To start the game, the Tigers jumped out to a 10-2 in the first two minutes of the game before Washburn came back with an 8-0 run over its own knotting the score at 10-10. Washburn stretched its lead to four at 17-13 before Fort Hays State tied the score at 17. From that point the Ichabods built a lead of as many as eight points at 35-27 with 2:21 before the Tigers trimmed the lead back to one.
In the second half, used a 23-5 run as the No. 1 scoring defense in the country held the Ichabods scoreless 6:39 building a lead of 17 at 61-44 with 9:03 to play.  Washburn cut the lead to 12 after a lay up and a 3-pointer by Michael Keegan but the Ichabods did not get any closer than 12 the rest of the way with 3:53 to go after a 3-pointer by Jack Bachelor.
Orr led the Ichabods with 13 points pulling down seven rebounds adding two blocks and two assists. Bachelor finished with 11 points hitting three of the Ichabods' five 3-pointers on the night. Brady Christiansen had nine points and eight rebounds.
Kaleb Hammeke scored 22 points garnering game-high honors hitting six 3-pointers in the game and Elijah Nnanbu hit 9 of 12 shots overall scoring 20 points adding seven rebounds. Hammeke also had seven assists in the game.
The Ichabods committed 21 turnovers leading to 21 Tigers points while Fort Hays State committed only nine turnovers in the game giving the Ichabods 11 points. The 58 points by the Ichabods were a season-low in MIAA contests.
Washburn shot 45 percent in the game hitting 21 of 47 attempts overall and was 11 of 12 from the free throw line. In the second half, the Ichabods were limited to 7 of 20 shooting in the second half for a 35 percent average. The Tigers were 44 percent from the field hitting 10 of 24 3-pointers.
Washburn held a 35 to 25 advantage on the glass. •    The Ichabods are 1,680-1,129-2 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 685-321 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 496-102 (.848) all-time in Lee Arena.
•    The 2023-24 season marks the 38th season of play in Lee Arena.
•    The Ichabods are 38-1 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 continue the four-game road trip at Rogers State (Feb. 1) and Northeastern State (Feb. 3) before returning home on Feb. 7 to host Missouri Western and Northwest Missouri on Feb. 10.