By RICK PETERSON
TopSports.news
The Washburn Ichabods led for all but 67 seconds at Nebraska-Kearney on Saturday, with five players cracking double figures in an 89-68 win over the Lopers.
After the Lopers (5-13 overall, 2-11 MIAA) led 3-2, Washburn came back with seven straight points to take a 9-3 lead before Nebraska-Kearney tied the score at 10-10 with 13:11 left in the opening half.
Junior Andrew Orr scored a game-high 21 points in Washburn's 89-68 road win at Nebraska-Kearney Saturday. [File photo/TSN]
Freshman Brayden Shorter scored 20 points with four 3-pointers in Washburn's 89-68 win at Nebraska-Kearney on Saturday. [File photo/TSN]
The Ichabods responded with a 10-0 run including eight in a row by freshman Brayden Shorter with a pair of 3-pointers, pushing the lead to 11 at 23-12.
UNK would hang around with an 11-point deficit before the Ichabods reeled off 11 straight points to close the half with a 45-27 lead.
Starting the second half, the Ichabods (13-6, 9-4) kept the run going with five more points in the first 57 seconds of the second half, building a lead of 25 points at 52-27 for their largest lead of the game. UNK would not get closer than 17 the rest of the game.
Junior Andrew Orr led the Ichabods with 21 points on 9 of 12 shooting from the field and added 6 rebounds, 2 assists and 2 blocks.
Shorter finished with a career-high 20 points on 7 of 9 shooting while hitting 4 of 5 3-pointers.
Sophomore Brady Christiansen recorded the second double-double of his career with 11 points and 14 rebounds. Also in double figures were Jake Schadegg with 10 off the bench and Jack Bachelor, who had 10 points, 7 assists and 6 steals.
D'Aundre Samuels led the Lopers with 16 points.
Washburn will stay on the road for two more games, facing Rogers State on Thursday and Northeastern State on Saturday.
Senior Aubree Dewey scored 21 points with three 3-pointers in Washburn's 75-74 overtime loss at Nebraska-Kearney on Saturday. [Photo courtesy of Washburn Athletics]
WU women drop 75-74 OT heartbreaker at Kearney
Washburn and Nebraska-Kearney's women needed more than 40 minutes to decide things on Saturday afternoon but after 45 minutes the Ichabods ran out of time, falling 75-74 in overtime to the Lopers.
The Lopers (14-5 overall, 8-5 MIAA) scored the first four points of the game and the lead quickly expanded to seven points at the 7:53 mark of the first quarter.
Washburn (11-8, 6-7) battled back, taking the lead after Nia McKenzie put in a layup at the 4:29 mark.
Nebraska-Kearney continued to fire away, knocking down four 3-pointers in the opening quarter to re-take a 17-14 lead.
After falling behind by five in the second quarter, Washburn rattled off eight straight points to go up by three on a triple from Aubree Dewey at the 5:55 mark in the quarter.
Both teams had opportunities in the quarter, with 11 combined offensive rebounds, but the Ichabods made the most of them shooting 7-18 while holding UNK to 26.3% shooting for the quarter.
Dewey converted on the final opportunity of the half, knocking down a jumper as time expired to give Washburn a 32-29 lead at the break.
Washburn led or was tied for the entire third quarter. The Ichabod lead reached a game-high seven points after Mackenzie Gamble connected on a 3-pointer to go up 45-38 with 3:51 left in the quarter.
In the final minutes of the quarter Nebraska-Kearney took advantage of a 14-8 rebound advantage in the quarter and scored the final five points to cut the Washburn lead to just one point going into the fourth.
Neither team scored until Aniah Wayne sunk a pair of free throws with 7:32 left in the final quarter. The Lopers tied the game and took the lead for the first time since early in the second quarter after hitting two free throws with 5:22 to play in regulation.
In the final five minutes there were five lead changes and four ties, including a tie at the end of the fourth quarter after Dewey was able to find Wayne under the basket for a layup on a play that started with four seconds left on the clock.
Playing for the first time in overtime this season, Yibari Nwidadah hit a pair of free throws with 3:41 remaining to break the tie.
The Lopers didn't score until there was 1:55 left in the extra period on a two-point jumper. UNK took a one-point lead 42 seconds later and connected on another jumper with 18 seconds left to go up by three.
Nwidadah connected on an extra-chance layup, but that would be the final score of the game with Washburn coming up one point short.
Dewey led all scorers with 21 points to go with eight assists and three steals. She tied a career high with three 3-pointers and went over 20 points for the fifth time in her last six games.
Nwidadah tied a career high with 19 points on 8-10 shooting and made it a double double with 12 rebounds. Both Wayne and Gamble added eight points.
Meg Burns scored 20 points for the Lopers while Shiloh McCool had a 15-point and 13-rebound double double while Jillian Aschoff had nine points, nine rebounds and 11 assists.
Washburn will stay on the road next week taking on Rogers State on Thursday at 5:30 p.m.
