By RICK PETERSON
TopSports.news
The No. 3-ranked Washburn Ichabods rolled to a dominant 88-49 MIAA win over Pittsburg State on Wednesday night in Lee Arena, improving to 27-1 and 17-1 in the conference with their 28th straight home victory.
Sophomore Dillon Claussen scored a game-high 23 points with five rebounds and two blocked shots in Wednesday's 88-49 win over Pittsburg State. [Photo by Rex Wolf/TSN]
The Ichabods put up 44 points in each half while holding the Gorillas to 34 percent shooting, winning their 11th game in a row over Pitt State.
"We took care of business,'' Washburn coach Brett Ballard said. "I thought we played well on both sides and disrupted them. We created a lot of turnovers, which was good.
"I thought our defensive disruption really bothered them and we held them to a low shooting percentage and offensively we were efficient.''
The Gorillas (15-13, 9-9) took a 9-6 lead seven minutes into the half, but Washburn used an 11-0 run over the next three minutes with eight points by sophomore Dillon Claussen to take control.
Back to back 3-pointers by sophomore Marcus Glock and a 3-pointer from senior Sam Ungashick pushed the Washburn lead to 26-16 and another 12-2 run by the Ichabods doubled up the Washburn lead to 38-19 with 2:53 to play in the first half.
Washburn would go on to take a 44-26 lead into the halftime break.
The Ichabods' biggest lead reached 39 in the second half, with WU closing the final 6:57 of the game on an 18-1 run.
Washburn held the Gorillas to 0 of 8 shooting down the stretch as five different Ichabods scored.
Claussen finished with a game-high 23 points on 9 of 15 shooting while adding five rebounds and two blocked shots.
While Claussen did the bulk of his work inside, he also stepped outside to can a 3-pointer, which he said is always fun.
"It's super fun,'' Claussen said. "I worked on my 3s a lot in the offseason and I've been able to shoot them. My coaches and my teammates believe in me to shoot them so I love shooting 3s. It's fun to get out there and see one go down.''
Like Ballard, Claussen thought the Ichabods turned in a solid performance against the Gorillas.
"They've had some close games with some good teams, so we knew we had to come in here and take care of business,'' he said. "We don't have many games left in Lee Arena this year and every one matters and we executed the game plan really well. It was a great win and everyone's happy.''
Junior Jack Bachelor scored 13 points with seven rebounds and eight assists in Washburn's 88-49 win over Pittsburg State Wednesday in Lee Arena. [Photo by Rex Wolf/TSN]
Sophomore Marcus Glock scored 15 points on five 3-pointers in Wednesday's 88-49 win over Pittsburg State. [Photo by Rex Wolf/TSN]
Junior Jack Bachelor scored 13 points with eight assists, seven rebounds and three steals and Glock finished with 15 points off the bench, hitting five 3-pointers.
Junior Jeremiah Jones set Washburn's single-season steals record in Wednesday's 88-49 win over Pittsburg State in Lee Arena. [Photo by Rex Wolf/TSN]
Junior Jeremiah Jones scored eight points with three steals, breaking the Washburn single-season steals record of 82 set by Will McNeill during the 2012-13 season.
Connor Rogers led the Gorillas with 15 points.
The Ichabods out-rebounded the Gorillas 44-26, including 15 offensive rebounds.
Washburn shot 50 percent from the field (35 of 70) for the game, including 12-of-25 from 3-point range while holding the Gorillas to just 4-of-22 (18 percent) shooting from deep.
The Ichabods' 28-game homecourt winning streak is tied for the longest in program history, matching the 28-game streak from Nov. 19, 1993 to Feb. 8, 1995.
After the game the Ichabods received the MIAA Championship and cut down the nets.
The Ichabods will wrap up the regular season on Saturday, hosting Missouri Southern at 1 p.m. The men's game will be followed by a 3 o'clock women's game between the Ichabods and Lions.
