The top-ranked Washburn Ichabods men's basketball team continued its perfect start to the 2025-2026 season Saturday in Maryville, Mo, pulling away in the second half for a 76-53 MIAA road win over Northwest Missouri State.
Senior Bryson Smith led Washburn with 16 points Saturday as the Ichabods improved to 16-0 on the season. [File photo/TSN]The Ichabods improved to 16–0 overall and 6–0 in MIAA play, going wire-to-wire for the victory.
Washburn jumped out quickly, scoring the first 10 points of the game and holding the Bearcats without a field goal for nearly three minutes.
The Ichabods went on to build a 21-2 lead at the 12:38 mark of the opening half, but the Bearcats clawed back into the game, trimming the Ichabod advantage to two at 29-27 with 1:33 to play in the first half before the Ichabods closed the half on a 7-0 run to take a 36–27 lead into break.
Washburn dominated the paint early, outscoring the Bearcats 24 to 2 while the Bearcats finished the first 20 minutes with seven 3-pointers out of their nine first-half field goals.
Washburn pushed its lead to 11 at 41-30 with 19:02 to play in the game before the Bearcats (9-8, 2-4) hit back-to-back 3-pointers to cut the Ichabod lead back to three with 16:19 to play.
After a free throw by WU senior Bryson Smith, a basket from Northwest's Jack Ratigan cut the lead down to two with 14:47 remaining.
But Washburn outscored the Bearcats 22-7 to open up a 64-47 lead with 7:41 to play.
Northwest scored the next two points of the game, and then another 9-0 spurt by Washburn stretched the lead to 73-49.
For the game, Washburn hit 30 of 59 shots from the field (50.8 percent), including a strong 26-of-39 (66.7) on two-point attempts, leading to a 50 to 14 advantage in points in the paint.
The Ichabods went 4 of 20 from 3-point range (20.0%) and 12 of 16 at the free throw line (75.0%).
