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Washburn University women's basketball registered its sixth straight victory Saturday as the Ichabods wrapped up a 21-7 regular season with an 83-64 home MIAA win over Missouri Southern on Senior Day in Lee Arena.

 

"That's a tough day, I think just being out of routine and playing second,'' Washburn coach Lora Westling said. "It's an emotional day with the senior class we have, but I was just incredibly proud of our group.

 

"I thought we showed a lot of the different looks that we can play with and I thought we showed our versatility today. We made the tough plays when we needed to and rebounded incredibly well in the first half and got the job done.''

  

The Ichabods will enter the MIAA Tournament as the No. 3 seed and will face No. 6 seed Pittsburg State in the quarterfinal round at 2:15 p.m. Friday in Kansas City, Mo. at the historic Municipal Auditorium.

 

Before the game Washburn recognized seniors Gabi Giovannetti, Payton Sterk, Aniah Wayne and Yibari Nwidadah along with student assistant Karly Neufeld. The senior class has helped lead Washburn to its first 20-win season since 2019.

After a 5-0 run early in the first quarter to lead 10-5 Washburn, 14-5 in the MIAA, never trailed the rest of the way. The Ichabods shot 8-8 at the free throw line in the opening quarter to help build an 18-14 lead.  

The Lions (19-9, 13-6) cut the deficit down to one point early in the second quarter but the third 3-pointer of the game by junior Madelyn Amekporfor stopped the run.

The Ichabods were able to push the lead to 10 points at 35-25 on a Giovannetti 3-pointer with 1:44 remaining in the first half. Washburn ended the half on a 5-0 run in the final 17 seconds to go into halftime leading 40-27.  

A personal 5-0 run by Sterk pushed the lead to 15 points at the 6:40 mark of the third quarter.

Missouri Southern answered with six points in a row to reduce the WU lead to single digits, but Wayne hit a pair of 3-pointers inside the final minutes of the quarter as the Ichabods took a 62-50 advantage into the fourth stanza. 

Sterk opened the fourth with a 3-pointer, but the Lions continued to chip away, bringing the lead back down to nine points with 5:29 remaining.

Over the next 2:13 Washburn answered with a 10-2 run, with the final six points coming at the free throw line. That pushed the lead to 17 and it was all Ichabods from there as they eased into the 19-point victory. 

Washburn shot 42.9 percent from the field for the game and was an efficient 9 of 23 from deep. The Ichabods got to the line 32 times and converted 26 opportunities.

On the other end Missouri Southern was held to 33.9 percent shooting and the Lions went just 1-12 from behind the 3-point arc. Southern shot 21-31 at the charity stripe. 

Five players cracked double figures for Washburn, led by Sterk with 19 ponts on 5-9 shooting.

Sterk said she tried to avoid getting too emotional for Senior Day.

"I was a little bit, but we still have a long way to go before you get emotional,'' Sterk said. "I thought (today) was good. I think we were locked in and kind of followed our game plan. It was a little messy, a lot of fouls, but I think we did a good job of sticking together and finishing the game.''

Giovannetti, who eclipsed the 1,000-point milestone for her career in the win, scored 17 points to go with nine rebounds while Amekporfor and Britany Kogbara both scored 12 points and Wayne scored 11.

Washburn senior Gabi Giovannetti scored 17 points Saturday to eclipse the 1,000-point mark for her career. [Photo by Rick Peterson/TSN]

Giovannetti said she didn't even realize 1,000 points was a possibility until recently.

"I didn't hit in high school so I really didn't think I was going to hit it in college,'' Giovannetti said. "Then a couple of weeks ago my mom was like, 'You're really close.'

"I didn't want to force it. I obviously wanted to win the game more than that, it is really special.'' 

Lily Thomas led the Lions with 19 points and Grace Frazier had 17.