TOPEKA, Kan. -- The Ichabods opened up Washburn women's basketball inside the new Lee Arena in style on Friday night cruising to a 70-47 win over Southwest Baptist in the opening day of the Washburn Classic. They will wrap up the tournament on Saturday facing MSU Denver at 4 p.m.
The first seven points in the game came from Washburn (2-1) starting with a 3-pointer by Payton Sterk on the first possession. They held the Bearcats (1-2) scoreless until the 5:49 mark in the first. After Southwest Baptist got within five Washburn scored ten points in a row, going up 22-7 after Aniah Wayne knocked down a triple. Behind an 8-14 effort shooting the Ichabods built a 22-10 lead after one.
Both sides evened out in the second quarter trading buckets, a layup by Yiibari Nwidadah with 2:29 to go before half put Washburn up 37-18, its largest lead of the game to point. The Bearcats finished the half on a 7-2 run to go into the break down by 14.
Out of the break the Ichabods quickly pushed the lead back up to 19 with Britany Kogbara scoring on the inside. Washburn's defense stepped up in the third, holding Southwest Baptist to just 4-14 shooting in the quarter. Nwidadah got a buzzer-beating and-one conversion to go, wrapping up the quarter by extending the lead to 20 at 54-34 with her free throw.
The first nine points in the fourth came by Washburn, the lead reached 30-points after Gabi Giovannetti drilled a triple on an assist by Brooke Gomez with 5:50 to play. All 14 Ichabods logged action on the night as they eased into a 70-47 win.
Washburn finished the game shooting 48.2% from the floor and 40.9% from deep with nine makes while holding the Bearcats to 35.4% shooting overall and just two triples on 13 attempts.
Rebounding went 38-28 in favor of Washburn, along with a 19-10 assist advantage. Points in the paint also went big to the Ichabods 32-20 while they also had advantages in bench scoring and points off turnovers.
Yiibari Nwidadah led the way with an efficient 19 points on 8-9 shooting along with a team-high eight rebounds. Gabi Giovannetti scored 13 points with seven rebounds and three steals. Aniah Wayne and Payton Sterk each scored eight while Brooke Gomez gave out a team-high six assists.
Ida Lusadisu N'Gonda led Southwest Baptist with 16 points on the night.
