PITTSBURG, Kan. – The No. 4-ranked Washburn Ichabods won their 10th game in a row over Pittsburg State in a 71-61 win on Wednesday in PSU's John Lance Arena. Washburn will wrap up the regular season at Missouri Southern on Saturday in the MIAA Game of the Week, available on 38The Spot in Kansas City at 1:30 p.m.

The Washburn Ichabods (25-2, 16-2 MIAA) led from start to finish in the win, topping the Gorillas for the second time this season after a non-conference win in Topeka in an 89-71 win on Nov. 19.

The Ichabods jumped out to a 10-3 after Brayden Shorter started the scoring for the Ichabods and he hit his second one that put Washburn up 10-3. The Ichabods kept the Gorillas at arms-length the rest of the half, building a margin of eight points with 7:25 to play in the frame. Pitt State did cut the lead to one at 29-28 with 2:19 to play before the Ichabods scored 6 of the last 8 points of the half taking a 34-30 lead into the break.

Washburn shot 2 of 13 from the 3-point line in the first half, while the Gorillas hit 7 of 15 overall.

The Ichabods came back with an 8-2 run to start the second half building a lead of 10 at 42-32 before the Gorillas (16-11, 12-6 MIAA) scored eight points to pull within two with 15:08 to play, but a 17-4 run by the Ichabods over the next 7:34 of the game put Washburn up by 15 and the Gorillas would not get closer than 10 the rest of the way with two seconds to play.

Jacob Hanna led the Ichabods with a game-high 18 points, adding five boards in the win and scoring 11 in the first half. Shorter finished with 16, hitting four 3-pointers while Jack Bachelor scored 13 with four assists and Dillon Claussen scored nine off the bench. Michael Keegan scored five with five rebounds and four steals, giving him 158 for his career placing him in second place on the Ichabod all-time chart.

Avery Taggart scored 15 leading the Gorilla scorers.

For only the second time this season, the Ichabods were outrebounded in a game by a count of 36 to 33 by Pitt State.
Washburn finished 25 of 54 from the field for a 46 percent clip, hitting 13 of 24 in the second half. Defensively, the Ichabods held Pitt State to 9 of 28 shooting in the second half, including 2 of 12 from deep. Washburn also forced 22 turnovers leading to 26 Ichabod points.