•    The Washburn Ichabods wrap up the regular season hosting Emporia State on Saturday at 3 p.m.
•    The Washburn Ichabods will honor seniors Levi Braun and Zach Davidson before the game.
•    Washburn (18-9, 14-7 MIAA) won its final regular season road game of the year in a 77-72 win at Missouri Southern on Wednesday.
•    The Hornets (18-11, 11-10 MIAA) fell 79-76 at Pittsburg State snapping their four-game winning streak.
•    The Ichabods, who have already clinched a spot in the MIAA Tournament in Kansas City, are in a two-way tie for third in the MIAA standings with Pittsburg State 15-7.  Northwest Missouri (19-2) and Fort Hays State (16-5) lead the league standings with one game to play. Rogers State is alone in fifth at 13-8. Missouri Southern is 11-10 tied with Central Oklahoma and Emporia State. If the Ichabods and Gorillas remain tied for third, the Ichabods would have the tiebreaker by virtue of a head to head win on Jan. 20 in Lee Arena.
•    The Ichabods are 499-103 (.848) all-time in Lee Arena in a facility this is in its 38th season of play.
•    The Ichabods received votes in the latest NABC Top 25 Coaches Poll.
•    Washburn will open the MIAA Championship Tournament next week in historic Municipal Auditorium. Check back to wusports.com for schedule updates.
•    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. •    The Ichabods are shooting .745 (372 of 499) from the free throw line this season … that is the best mark by an Ichabod team since the 1966-67 season when they shot .742 percent (525 of 708) … the Ichabod single season record for free throw percentage is .763 set in the 1968-69 season (728 of 954).
•    Andrew Orr leads the team in scoring 13.6 ppg this season … he is shooting 54 percent from the field hitting 148 of 273 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 47th on Washburn's all-time scoring chart with 854 career points … he had 16 in the first meeting with Emporia State.
•    Sam Ungashick is scoring 12.5 ppg averaging 3.6 rebounds, 2.9 assists and 1.4 steals per game … he leads the team with team with 39 steals … against the Hornets in the first meeting he had 21 points playing a career-high 40 minutes.
•    Jack Bachelor is scoring 11.7 ppg this season and leads the team with 105 assists and was named the MIAA Player of the Week for the week of Jan. 8 … Bachelor has scored 316 points this season, which is seventh on the Ichabod freshman season scoring chart and his 41 3-pointers are sixth.
•    Brady Christiansen is averaging 8.2 ppg with a team-high 6.7 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 371 in his sophomore season …he is ninth on the sophomore class rebound chart.
•    Jarmell Johnson is averaging 7.5 ppg and 3.2 rpg … he has hit at least one 3-pointer in six of the last eight games … he scored 14 points in the first meeting with Emporia State.
•    Brayden Shorter is averaging 7.5 ppg and 2.5 rpg … he has reached double figures in the last three games averaging 16.7 ppg … he hit his only 3-point attempt in the first meeting with Emporia State.
•    Michael Keegan is scoring 7.4 ppg with 5.3 rpg coming off a 12-point game against Missouri Southern last time out.
•    Jake Schadegg is averaging 4.9 ppg and 1.4 apg and scored eight points against UCO last time out.
•    Emmanuel Byrd is scoring 3.8 ppg with 3.1 rpg … he scored eight in the first meeting with the Hornets.
•    Zaid Dajani is scoring 1.7 ppg and Kevin Eman is averaging 1.2 ppg.
•    Washburn is third the MIAA in 3-pointers made per game at 7.8 per contest and Emporia State is fourth at 7.7 per game … the Ichabods are also ranked second in 3-point field goal percentage at .373 and ranked 13th in opponent 3-point field goal percent at .383.
•    The Ichabods are third in the MIAA in scoring averaging 76.6 ppg and ranked eighth in scoring defense allowing 70.4 ppg … the Hornets are fifth in scoring offense at 74.2 ppg and seventh in scoring defense at 68.0 ppg.
•    Washburn is +6.0 in rebounding margin this season which is second in the MIAA while leading the MIAA in total rebounds at 37.6 per game … Emporia State is 10th in rebound margin at -1.2 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 136-73 in his seventh season as the Ichabods' head coach and 169-103 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 7-5 against Emporia State.
 
EMPORIA STATE HEAD COACH CRAIG DOTY ...
•    is 96-75 in his sixth season at Emporia State
•    is in his 12th season as a head coach at the D2, NAIA, and NJCAA level … he is 258-124 with three national championships.
•    in two seasons at Graceland, Doty went 49-22 and won the 2018 NAIA Division I National Championship in Municipal Auditorium.
•    prior to Graceland, Doty spent four years as the head coach at Rock Valley College winning two national championships and appearing in three-straight NJCAA Division III title games to finish with a 113-28 record.
•    is 3-6 against Washburn
  •    The Hornets are 18-11 overall and 11-10 in the MIAA standings.
•    Alijah Comithier leads four different Hornets in double-figure scoring at 17.9 ppg. Solomon Oraegbu is scoring 16.3 ppg and Owen Long is scoring 15.1 ppg while and Atavian Butler is scoring 14.1 ppg.
•    The Hornets are scoring 74.2 ppg while allowing 67.9.
  •    The meeting on Saturday will be the 221st meeting between the two schools and the Ichabods lead at 113-107. This is the most-played series for Washburn
•    The Ichabods have won 10 of the last 16 meetings.
•    The two teams started the series in 1905-06, Washburn's first recorded year of basketball, and they have met every year since the 1945-56 season.
•    The home team has won 17 of the last 21 meetings.
•    The Ichabods are 44-60 against the Hornets on the road.
•    This season will be the fourth consecutive season that these two teams will finish the regular season against each other.
•    Washburn is 5-1 against Emporia State in MIAA Postseason tournament games.
  (Dec. 2, 2023) EMPORIA, Kan. – The Washburn Ichabod men's basketball team fell in its season opener 71-69 at Emporia State. 
Washburn trailed 38-27 with 1:30 to go in the first half, but closed on a 7-0 run to enter the locker room down 38-32. Washburn then used a 10-2 run over the next 3:23 to take a 42-41 lead.
Washburn (4-3, 0-1 MIAA) led 50-45 with 12:18 to go after an Emmanuel Byrd scored eight-straight points. Then the Hornets scored seven of their next eight points from the free throw line cutting the Ichabod lead to one with 8:04 to go.
Washburn and Emporia State wet back and forth over their three possessions. A pair of free throws by Sam Ungashick pushed Washburn back in front at 60-59 with 5:47 to lay.  The Hornets built their lead back to three at 64-61, but again the Ichabods came back to go back in front at 65-64 on a driving lay-up by Jarmell Johnson.
Andrew Orr scored his 16th point of the game with 55 seconds to play putting the Ichabods back up 69-66, but a four-point play by Owen Long tied the score up and ESU hit two free throws wrapping up the win.
Ungashick led the Ichabods with 21 points leading three total Ichabods in double figures with Orr scoring 16 and Johnson scoring 14. Brady Christiansen had 12 rebounds. Long scored 22 to lead the Hornets.
The Ichabods outshot the Hornets 42 percent to 35 percent hitting 25 of 60 overall compared to 17 of 48 by Emporia State (7-1, 1-0 MIAA). However the Hornets were 32 of 40 from the free throw line while the Ichabods were 16 of 18 overall. Washburn also had a 47 to 24 advantage on the glass.
Overall there were 12 lead changes and six ties in the game.     (Feb. 28, 2024) JOPLIN, Mo. – The Washburn Ichabods ending the regular season road slate with a 77-72 win over Missouri Southern on Wednesday night inside the Leggett & Platt Center.
In a game that had 13 lead changes and 12 ties, the Ichabods (18-9, 14-7 MIAA) scored 10 of the final 14 points in the game. After trailing 68-67 with 3:22 to go, Sam Ungashick hit a pair of free throws that put the Ichabods up 69-68 and neither team would score for nearly 90 seconds. Andrew Orr's 15th and 16th points of the night pushed the Ichabod advantage to 71-68.
The Lions (13-14, 11-10 MIAA) pulled within one after Darius Dawson hit two free throws of his own with 1:26 remaining. A 3-pointer by Brayden Shorter with 1:06 to go stretched the Ichabod lead to 74-70, but the Lions scored on their next possession with 38 seconds but as the clock ticked down, Ungashick hit a 3-pointer before the shot clock expired with 8.8 seconds to go to finish off the scoring. The Ichabods held the Lions to 1 of 6 shooting in the final 3:22 of the game and 0 of 4 from 3-point range.
Washburn led by three at the break at 39-36 after trailing by as many as seven midway through the first half.
Shorter and Andrew Orr led the Ichabods with 16 points each. Shorter finished 4 of 8 from deep adding a team-high six rebounds and Orr was 6 of 12 from the field dishing out five assists. Also reaching double figures were Michael Keegan with 12, Jack Bachelor had 11 with a career-high nine assists and Ungashick had 10.
Martin Macenis had a game-high 23 points to lead the Lions.
After shooting 46 percent in the first half hitting 14 of 30 shots overall and 6 of 15 from deep, the Ichabods improved to 56 percent going 14 of 25 from the field. From the charity stripe the Ichabods were 12 of 13. The Lions shot 42 percent for the game cooling off to 41 percent in the second half dropping from of 6 of 11 from deep in the first half to 4 of 14 in the second half. The Lions matched the Ichabods from the free throw line hitting 12 of 13.
Washburn was down four in rebound margin in the first half and was plus four in the second half to tie the rebounding total at 30 each game. Washburn's bench also outscored the Lions' reserves 20 to 5 and the team also had a 36 to 24 advantage in points in the paint. •    The Ichabods are 1,687-1,131-2 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 691-324 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 499-103 (.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.
  •    Seeding for the MIAA Championship Tournament in Kansas City running from March 6-10 at historic Municipal Auditorium will be announced at the conclusion of all games on Saturday. Check wusports.com for updates on tournament games for the Ichabods.