•    The Washburn Ichabods are back in action on Saturday inside Lee Arena hosting the Central Missouri Mules at 3 p.m.
•    Washburn (16-9, 12-7 MIAA) snapped a two-game losing streak with a 66-64 win over Lincoln on Thursday after Brady Christiansen hit a 3-pointer with 7.8 seconds to play.
•    Central Missouri is 11-14 overall and 6-13 in the MIAA after falling at Emporia State on Wednesday night in Emporia 75-51.
•    The Mules won the first meeting in Warrensburg between the two team in an 82-71 win in a game the Mules hit 12 of 23 3-point attempts on Jan. 10.
•    Saturday's meeting will be the 112th between these two teams with Washburn leading the series 58-53.
•    Washburn is 35-19 against the Mules in Topeka.
•    The Mules' have not won in Topeka since a 63-55 win over Washburn on Jan. 27, 2018 - a losing streak of five games.
•    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 12-7.  Northwest Missouri (17-2) and Fort Hays State (15-5) lead the league standings with three games to play. Missouri Southern is 11-8 and both Central Oklahoma and Emporia State sit at 10-9.
•    The Ichabods received votes in the latest NABC Top 25 Coaches Poll.
•    Washburn have its final regular season road game of the season at Missouri Southern on Feb. 28 and then 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 13.6 ppg this season … he is shooting 55 percent from the field hitting 138 of 250 attempts … 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 829 career points.
•    Sam Ungashick is scoring 12.6 ppg averaging 3.6 rebounds, 2.9 assists and 1.4 steals per game … he leads the team with team with 38 steals … he scored nine in the first game with Central Missouri.
•    Jack Bachelor is scoring 11.8 ppg this season and leads the team with 93 assists and was named the MIAA Player of the Week for the week of Jan. 8 … Bachelor has scored 295 points this season, which is eighth on the Ichabod freshman season scoring chart and his 39 3-pointers are fifth …he scored 18 in the first game with Central Missouri.
•    Brady Christiansen is averaging 8.3 ppg with a team-high 7.0 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 364 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 has hit at least one 3-pointer in five of the last six games.
•    Michael Keegan is scoring 7.2 ppg with 5.4 rpg.
•    Brayden Shorter is averaging 7.0 ppg and 2.3 rpg … he scored a career-high 25 points against Lincoln last time out including scoring 16 straight points in the second half run by the Ichabods.
•    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 Central Missouri is 10th at 7.1 per game.
•    The Ichabods are third in the MIAA in scoring averaging 76.9 ppg and ranked eighth in scoring defense allowing 71.2 ppg.
•    Washburn is +6.1 in rebounding margin this season which is second in the MIAA and ranked 18th nationally … the Ichabods lead the MIAA in total rebounds at 37.4 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 134-73 in his seventh season as the Ichabods' head coach and 167-103 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 9-2 against Central Missouri.
 
CENTRAL MISSOURI HEAD COACH ADAM BOHAC ...
•    Adam Bohac is 11-14 as the head coach at Central Missouri in his first season and 326-160 in his 16th season overall.
•    he was named the 25th head coach in the 118-year history of Central Missouri Mules basketball in March of 2023 after 15 seasons as head coach of the Southern Nazarene Crimson Storm where he had an overall record of 312-146 including 221-98 in GAC play.
•    His teams have made nine post season appearances including four of the previous six seasons being in the NCAA Tournament. In 2022-23, the Storm reached the Sweet Sixteen and in 2019-20 were a two-seed in the tournament.
•    He is 2-0 against the Ichabods the first meeting at UCM and winning a meeting as Southern Nazarene's head coach.
  •    Central Missouri is 11-14 overall and 6-13 in the MIAA after falling at Emporia State last time out.
•    Jalen Knott and Keith Kiner III lead the team in scoring at 11.6 ppg and Tim Jordan, Jr. is scoring 10.8 ppg.
•    The Mules are scoring 62.4 ppg while allowing 63.5 ppg.
  •    Saturday's meeting will be the 112th between these two teams with Washburn leading the series 58-53.
•    Washburn is 35-19 against the Mules in Topeka.
•    The Mules' have not won in Topeka since a 63-55 win over Washburn on Jan. 27, 2018 - a losing streak of five games.
•    The Ichabods have won 16 of the last 24 meetings.
•    The Ichabods are 5-1 all-time against Central Missouri in the MIAA Tournament.
•    The last time the teams met in the conference tournament was during the 2010 season when the Ichabods as the No. 8 seed topped the No. 1-seeded Mules 79-60.
  WARRENSBURG, Mo. – The Washburn Ichabods had their four-game winning streak snapped by a hot-shooting Central Missouri squad in a 82-71 loss on Wednesday at the UCM Multi.
The Mules, who entered the game as a 31 percent shooting squad from 3-point range built a lead of as many as 19 in the first half hitting 8 of 14 shots (57 percent) from deep. However trailing by 19 at 40-21 with 3:20 to go in the frame, Washburn closed with a 10-0 run to trail 40-31 at the break after holding Central Missouri scoreless the final 3:20 of the half.
To start the second half, the Mules kept the Ichabods down by between 12 and 14 points as three times in the second half after Washburn connected on a 3-pointer, the Mules answered as UCM did not cool off in the second half hitting 4 of 9 from deep to finish 12 of 23 overall for a 52 percent average. Coming into the game UCM was averaging 7.7 per contest.
Twice in the final 2:49, the Ichabods (9-5, 5-3 MIAA) cut the lead to nine. Once at 2:49 to play on a 3-pointer by Sam Ungashick and a free throw by Brady Christiansen and Washburn pulled within seven at 78-71 with 1:46 to go, but the Ichabods were scoreless the rest of the way as UCM hit 4 of 5 free throws down the stretch to hang on for the win snapping Washburn's seven game winning streak over the Mules.
Jack Bachelor led the Ichabods with 18 points going 8 of 8 from the free throw line hitting a pair of 3-pointers with four assists and three steals. Andrew Orr finished with 14 points and Michael Keegan had a game-high eight boards.
UCM (7-6, 2-5 MIAA) put five players in double figures led by Corey Skillman, Jr. who had 17 points off the bench hitting all five 3-point attempts.
Washburn was plus-five on the glass outrebounding UCM 33-28, but 12 Ichabod turnovers led to 14 Mule points. The Ichabods used 13 offensive rebounds to 13 points.
The Ichabods finished 44 percent from the field hitting 24 of 54 shots while the Mules were 26 of 49 overall for a 53 percent average. The Ichabods finished 8 of 20 from 3-point range and went 15 of 21 from the free throw line while the Mules were 18 of 22 overall.         TOPEKA, Kan. – A 3-pointer from Brady Christiansen with 7.7 seconds left and 23 second-half points by Brayden Shorter pushed the Ichabods to a 66-64 win over Lincoln on Thursday night in Lee Arena.
The Ichabods trailed by nine at the break at 31-22 after shooting 30 percent from the field and 1 of 9 from 3-point range. With the Ichabods trailing 35-24 with 17:03 to go in the game, Shorter scored 16-straight points for Washburn in an 18 to 7 run that tied the score at 42 with 11:05 to play.
Washburn (16-9, 12-7 MIAA) trailed by five at 56-51 with 5:14 to go, but Shorter scored Washburn's next five points with another 3-pointer and a layup tying the score at 56. After a 3-pointer by Lincoln, Michael Keegan answered with his own 3-pointer off an assist from Shorter to again knot the score with 3:30 to go.
Lincoln pushed out to a 3-point lead with 55 seconds to play, but the Ichabods outscored the Blue Tigers 7 to 2 down the stretch hitting all four free throw attempts leading to Christiansen's 3-pointer as Lincoln turned it over without getting a shot up as the clock struck zero.
Shorter's 25 points was a career high as were his five made 3-pointers and nine 3-point attempts and nine overall field goals made. Jack Bachelor score 13 points tying a career-best with seven assists. Christiansen finished with eight points adding eight rebounds including five on the offensive end.
D.J. Richardson led the Blue Tigers (14-11, 9-10 MIAA) with 20 points.
Washburn finished the game shooting 39 percent from the field and 8 of 19 from deep after going 7 of 10 from behind the arc in the second half. Washburn also held a 33 to 28 advantage on the glass. The Blue Tigers shot 48 percent for the game from the field. •    The Ichabods are 1,685-1,131-2 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 689-324 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 498-103 (.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 play its final regular season road game of the season at Missouri Southern on Feb. 28 and then return home to face Emporia State on senior day on March 2 as Levi Braun and Zach Davidson will be honored before the game.