KANSAS CITY, Mo. – The Washburn Ichabod basketball team moved into Saturday's semifinals of the MIAA Championship Tournament with an 87-64 win over Rogers State on Friday in historic Municipal Auditorium. The Ichabods will take on the top-seeded Northwest Missouri Bearcats at 6 p.m.
 
Washburn (19-10) was holding a 21-19 lead with 7:32 to go in the opening half before the Ichabods used an 8-1 run over the next 2:25 pushing Washburn to a 29-20 lead. From that point in the opening half, the team played to a one-point difference as the Ichabods took a 37-22 lead into the break after back-to-back layups by Sam Ungashick and Jack Bachelor.
 
Washburn scored the first five points of the second half to take a 42-27 lead. Midway through the frame, a 3-pointer by Brady Christiansen stretched Washburn's advantage to 20 with 13:11 to go. Following a Hillcat (17-12) timeout, Rogers State trimmed Washburn's down to 15 with 10:43 left and eventually to 13 with 9:04 to play.
 
After a pair of Ichabod free throws by Jarmell Johnson, Rogers State pulled within 10 twice with the last time coming at 73-62 with 5:37 left, but back-to-back-to-back 3-pointers by Brayden Shorter, Ungashick, and Johnson moved the lead back to 20 eventually to 23 with 1:19 to go for the final points of the game and the 23-point win.
 
Johnson led the Ichabods with a career-high 23 points starting the game leading three total Ichabods in double figures as Shorter finished with 19 and Bachelor had 14 points with five assists.
 
The Ichabods shot 51 percent for the game hitting 31 of 61 attempts while holding the Hillcats to 23 of 63 shooting and a 3 for 16 performance from deep. The Ichabods hit 12 of 28 shots from 3-point range and outrebounded Rogers State 39 to 33. Washburn was also 13 of 14 from the free throw line committing only nine turnovers in the win.