TOPEKA, Kan. – The No. 5 Washburn Ichabod basketball team will play for the NCAA Central Regional Championship for the first time since 2001 on Tuesday at 7 p.m. in Lee Arena after shooting a blistering 58 percent in the second half from the field to pull away in a 94-78 win over Concordia-St. Paul on Sunday in Lee Arena. Tickets for the Tuesday night championship game against MSU-Moorhead are available at wusports.com/tickets.
 
With the Ichabods leading 69-64, after a 3-pointer miss by the Golden Bears, Jacob Hanna pulled down the rebound and kicked it to Michael Keegan who threw down a monster dunk as Lee Arena exploded reaching a decimal reading of 114.7 pushing Washburn to a 10-point lead with 7:53 to play. Concordia-St. Paul trimmed the lead to eight with 5:20 to go but the Ichabods outscored the Golden Bears (22-9) over the next 3:55 building a 91-74 lead with 85 seconds to play rolling to the 16-point win.
 


Washburn (28-3) led 43-37 at the break after shooting 48 percent from the field holding the Golden Bears to 37 percent shooting as the Ichabods started the game on a 17 to 7 run in the first 4:34 of the game hitting 6 of 8 shots including 2 of 3 from deep while the Bears were 2 of 8 starting the game from the field.
 
Washburn was led by Jacob Hanna scored 24 points recording his second double double of the season adding 10 rebounds. Jacob Bachelor scored 21 with five assists and Andrew Orr finished with 16 adding five boards. Dillon Claussen reached double figures for the second-straight game scoring 10 points with five boards and four blocks.
 
Antwan Kimmons led the Golden Bears with 25 points and Marcus Skeete scored 17.
 
Washburn and CSP recorded the same number of rebounds at 36, but Washburn shot 53 percent from the field (33 of 62) while the Golden Bears ended at 44 percent (29 of 65). The Ichabods were 9 of 17 from deep and Washburn hit 19 of 26 free throws in the win.
 
Notes:
• MSU-Moorhead leads the all-time series 1-0 topping the Ichabods 79-77 on Nov. 12, 2023 in Kansas City's Municipal Auditorium in a game that saw 13 lead changes.
• The last time the Ichabods played in a regional final was in Lee Arena topping Northwest Missouri 67-61 in the 2001 NCAA South Central regional final.
• Dillon Claussen's four blocks tied an Ichabod NCAA record along with Jonny Clausing vs Missouri Western (03/13/21) and Michael Keegan vs Minn. Duluth (03/12/22).
• Jacob Hanna's double double with the 17^th all-time in the NCAA tournament for the Ichabods.