•    The Washburn Ichabods return home for the first of two games in Lee Arena this week starting with Lincoln on Thursday night.
•    Washburn (15-9, 11-7 MIAA) will be looking to snap a two-game slide after a 79-69 road loss at Central Oklahoma last time out.
•    Lincoln enters the game 14-10 and 9-9 in MIAA play coming off an 87-66 win over Nebraska-Kearney.
•    Washburn leads the all-time series 34-6 over the Blue Tigers going 16-3 in games played in Topeka.
•    The Ichabods won the first meeting between the two schools in Jefferson City, Mo. on Jan. 13 in a 70-69 win after rallying from an 11-point first-half deficit.
•    The Ichabods, who have already clinched a spot in the MIAA Tournament in Kansas City, are in a three-way tie for third in the MIAA standings with Pittsburg State and Rogers State at 11-7.  Northwest Missouri (17-2) and Fort Hays State (15-4) lead the league standings with four games to play. Central Oklahoma and Missouri Southern are one game back of the Ichabods at 10-8.
•    The Ichabods received votes in the latest NABC Top 25 Coaches Poll.
•    Washburn will face Central Missouri on Feb. 24 at home and after their final regular season road game of the season at Missouri Southern on Feb. 28, Washburn will face Emporia State on senior day on March 2 to wrap up the regular season.
•    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. •    Andrew Orr leads the team in scoring 14.1 ppg this season … he is shooting 57 percent from the field hitting 137 of 242 attempts … he has scored at least 20 points in three of the last six games … he is fifth in the MIAA in field goal percentage and ranks eighth on Washburn's all-time shooting percentage chart at 58 percent (343 of 599) … Orr also moved into 50th on Washburn's all-time scoring chart with 827 career points.
•    Sam Ungashick is scoring 12.9 ppg averaging 3.7 rebounds, 3.0 assists and 1.6 steals per game … he leads the team with team with 38 steals … he scored 13 points in the first meeting against Lincoln.
•    Jack Bachelor is scoring 11.8 ppg this season and leads the team with 86 assists and was named the MIAA Player of the Week for the week of Jan. 8 … Bachelor has scored 282 points this season, which is 10th on the Ichabod freshman season scoring chart and his 39 3-pointers are fifth.
•    Brady Christiansen is averaging 8.3 ppg with a team-high 6.9 rpg … he is fifth in the MIAA in rebound average and is fourth in the MIAA in offensive rebounds averaging 2.5 per game … he has also moved into the top 50 all-time at Washburn in rebounds with 356 midway through his sophomore season …he needs three rebounds to move in to the sophomore class top 10 in season rebounds.
•    Jarmell Johnson is averaging 7.4 ppg and 3.1 rpg … he scored 13 points in the first meeting with Lincoln adding six rebounds and three steals.
•    Michael Keegan is scoring 7.3 ppg with 5.5 rpg … he recorded a double double in the first meeting with Lincoln with 11 points and 11 rebounds adding four assists.
•    Brayden Shorter is averaging 6.2 ppg and 2.3 rpg … he had six rebounds last time out against Central Oklahoma hitting 3 of 6 3-point attempts.
•    Jake Schadegg is averaging 4.9 ppg and 1.4 apg and scored eight points against UCO last time out.
•    Emmanuel Byrd is scoring 4.1 ppg with 3.4 rpg,
•    Zaid Dajani is scoring 1.9 ppg tying a career-high with 17 minutes played against UCO last game and Kevin Eman is averaging 1.2 ppg.
•    Washburn is third the MIAA in 3-pointers made per game at 7.7 per contest and Lincoln is tied for second at 7.8 per game.
•    The Ichabods are first in the MIAA in scoring averaging 77.4 ppg and ranked eighth in scoring defense allowing 71.5 ppg while Lincoln is 11th in the MIAA in scoring at 69.4 ppg and fifth in scoring defense at 66.2 per game.
•    Washburn is +6.1 in rebounding margin this season which is second in the MIAA and ranked 18th nationally … the Ichabods also leading the MIAA in total rebounds at 37.6 per 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 133-73 in his seventh season as the Ichabods' head coach and 166-103 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 7-3 against Lincoln.
 
LINCOLN HEAD COACH JIMMY DREW ...
•    is 31-20 in his second season as Lincoln's head coach.
•    Drew came to LU following a six-year run on the staff at Division I Central Florida. Drew helped lead UCF to a pair of 20-win seasons and a berth in the second round of the NCAA tournament, and he coached three players who went on to play in the NBA.
•    is 2-1 against Washburn.
  •    Lincoln is 14-10 and 9-9 in the MIAA after completing the season sweep over Nebraska-Kearney winning 87-66 on Feb. 17.
•    DJ Richardson is scoring 14.7 points per night … Elijah Farr is averaging 12.1 points and 6.9 rebounds per game and Franck Yetna is scoring 11.3 points per contest.
•    Lincoln is 5-5 in road contests this season.
  •    Thursday's meeting will be the 41st in the series history and Washburn leads 34-6.
•    Washburn had won the last 28 meetings in the series which began on Dec. 18, 1957 with the Blue Tigers winning 93-80 until the Ichabods' 75-73 loss to the Blue Tigers on Jan. 31, 2019.
•    Overall the Ichabods are 16-2 against Lincoln in Jefferson City all-time.
•    In Topeka, the Ichabods are 16-3 .
•    In neutral site games Washburn is 2-1.
•    The teams have never met in the MIAA Tournament.
  (Jan. 13, 2024) JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. – Andrew Orr hit a free throw with 1.4 left to push the Ichabods to a 70-69 win at Lincoln on Saturday afternoon in the final road game inside Jefferson Gymnasium.
The Ichabods trailed by as many as 11 in the first half at 33-22 with 5:07 to play before cutting the Lincoln lead down to eight, but a 3-point play by Elijah Farr pushed the lead back to 10 with 3:14 to go.  A dunk by Jarmell Johnson jump started a 6-0 run to end the half cutting the Blue Tiger advantage back to four at 37-33. Washburn was 1 of 6 from deep in the first 20 minutes while the Blue Tigers were 5 of 10.
To start the second half, the Ichabods scored the first five points of the frame – all by Michael Keegan on a 3-pointer and a layup as Washburn took a 40-37 lead. Lincoln pushed its lead out to four at 48-44 before buckets by Johnson and Andrew Orr tied the score back at 48 with 12:16 to go. But the Blue Tigers came back with a 3-pointer to stretch the lead back to three at 51-48.
Lincoln pushed its lead to 61-50 with 7:06 to go using a 13-2 run before a 3-pointer by Jack Bachelor broke an 0 for 9 shooting drought by the Ichabods with 6:23 to play.
A 3-point play by Orr pulled the Ichabods to a 63-61 deficit with 3:45 to play. The teams traded empty trips on the offensive end before Orr tied the score at 63 with a layup with 2:06 remaining. With 1:30 left, Orr connected on another layup putting Washburn up two at 65-63.  The Ichabods were fouled and Sam Ungashick connected on both free throws with 16 seconds to go as Ichabods moved their lead to four at 69-65. Lincoln cut the lead to two on its next possession..
Lincoln converted a layup off an Ichabod turnover tying the score at 69 with :04 to play, but Orr was fouled with 1.4 left after Jack Bachelor quickly inbounded the ball to Michael Keegan who fed it to Orr leading to the winning free throws. He hit the second of two free throws for the in.
Orr led the Ichabods (10-5, 6-3 MIAA) with a game-high 18 points going 7 of 9 from the field adding six rebounds. Johnson and Ungashic each had 13 and Keegan recorded his second double double of the season with 11 points and 11 rebounds (six offensive) with four assists.
Farr led the Blue Tigers with 16 points.
Washburn finished the game 25 of 64 from the field and was limited to 4 of 15 shooting from 3-point range for the game. The Ichabods were 16 of 23 from the free throw line. After hitting 13 of 26 shots in the first half, the Blue Tigers cooled off to 33 percent in the second half to finish at 40 percent for the game hitting 11 of 26 shots from 3-point range.
The Ichabods were +10 on the glass turning 16 offensive rebounds into 25 second chance points outscoring Lincoln (10-5, 5-4 MIAA) 40 to 26 in the paint and 16 to 8 in bench points.         EDMOND, Okla. – The Washburn Ichabod men's basketball team's late rally came up short on Saturday afternoon as they fell 79-69 at Central Oklahoma.
The Ichabods (15-9, 11-7 MIAA) trailed the Bronchos by five at the break at 41-36 and then trailed by seven at 49-42 with 16:08 to go, but the Ichabods cut the margin back to a three-point deficit after a layup by Andrew Orr and a pair of free throws by Jarmell Johnson.
Washburn pulled within two at 51-49 and 52-50 and then cut the lead to one at 53-52 with 12:14 to play, but a 6-0 spurt by the Bronchos pushed the lead to five under 10 minutes to go.
After the teams traded baskets, UCO (18-8, 10-8 MIAA) again stretched its lead to nine at 66-57, before a 6-0 run by the Ichabods trimmed the margin back to three at 66-63 with 5:52 to play and that would be the closest the Ichabods would get as UCO outscored Washburn 13-6 the rest of the way as the teams split the regular season series.
Orr led the Ichabods with 19 points adding five rebounds and two blocks and Sam Ungashick scored 15 points with five rebounds. Brayden Shorter scored nine points with a team-high six rebounds and Jack Bachelor had five assists with seven points.
Jaden Wells led three Bronchos in double figures with 27 points.
The Bronchos held a 34-33 advantage on the glass turning 12 offensive rebounds into 24 points. •    The Ichabods are 1,684-1,131-2 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 688-324 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 497-103 (.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 host Central Missouri on Feb. 24 before playing its final regular season road game of the season at Missouri Southern on Feb. 28. Washburn will face Emporia State on senior day on March 2.