MANKATO, Minn. -- The No. 5 seed Washburn Ichabod women's basketball season came to an end in the quarterfinal round of the NCAA Central Region tournament with a 64-55 loss to the No. 4 seed Central Missouri on Friday night. The Ichabods end the season with a 24-8 record and an MIAA Tournament Championship.
Washburn (24-8) opened the game on a hot start leading 6-3 after the second bucket of the game for Yiibari Nwidadah in the first four minutes. The Jennies (26-6) would come back to tie it up at eight in the start of what would turn into a 11-2 run to end the first quarter leading 16-10.
Nwidadah opened the second with an old-fashioned three-point play that cut the lead in half but the next 11 points came from Central Missouri as the lead reached 14 points at the 4:48 mark in the quarter. A quick five-point burst from Kellyn Hunter inside the final three minutes helped bring the lead back down to single digits sending the Ichabods to the half trailing 29-22.
Both sides traded baskets out of the break with the deficit staying between seven and eleven points until a 4-0 burst by the Jennies pushed the lead back up to 13. Payton Sterk drained 3-pointers on back-to-back trips down the court, cutting the lead back down to seven points with 4:07 left in the quarter. A steal and a score from Hunter brought it to five but was answered by five straight for Central Missouri as they went into the fourth leading 50-41.
The fourth quarter started like the third with alternating baskets on each side. Washburn shot it efficiently, going 6-14 in the quarter, but could not connect from deep going 0-7 from three-point range in the comeback attempt. Madelyn Amekporfor got a layup to go inside of two minutes that made it an eight-point game for the first time all quarter That was as close as the Ichabods would get as the Jennies held on to win 64-55.
Washburn finished the game shooting 36.8% (21-57) from the floor and were just 2-16 (12.5%) from deep. Central Missouri shot an even 50.0% from the floor (24-48) while going 5-16 from deep and 11-20 at the line.
The Jennies led 37-30 in rebounding while the Ichabods made up in the possession battle with a 15-10 advantage in turnovers. Washburn led in paint scoring, bench production and fast break points but could not overcome the shot-making of UCM.
Yiibari Nwidadah led the way for the Ichabods with 14 points on 5-10 shooting with six rebounds and a steal. Payton Sterk scored 12 while adding a steal and three boards. Gabi Giovannetti added eight points with a pair of blocks and Kellyn Hunter had seven.
Reese Schaaf was the only double-figure scorer for Central Missouri finishing with 35 points on 15-23 shooting and grabbing 10 rebounds.
Season notes:
