By RICK PETERSON
TopSports.news
The smiles told it all.
Washburn University's women's basketball team continued its early-season hot streak in Tuesday's home-opener at Lee Arena, going wire to wire for an 86-66 non-conference win over William Jewell that stretched the 4-1 Ichabods' win streak to four games.
Senior Aubree Dewey scored a career-high 23 points and dished out eight assists as Washburn improved to 4-1 with its fourth straight victory, an 86-66 win over William Jewell. [Photo by Rex Wolf/TSN]
Senior point guard Aubree Dewey led Washburn with a career-high 23 points, including a three of three performance from 3-point range, and also contributed eight assists while sophomore Gabi Giovannetti had 17 points with five 3-pointers and Yibari Nwidadah registered a double-double with 13 points and 15 rebounds.
Sophomore Gabi Giovannetti scored 17 points with five 3-pointers in Washburn's 86-66 win over William Jewell Tuesday. [Photo by Rex Wolf/TSN
Sophomore Yibari Nwidadah had a double-double with 13 points and 15 rebounds in Washburn's 86-66 win over William Jewell Tuesday night. [Photo by Rex Wolf/TSN]
Ten Ichabods cracked the scoring column while WU out-rebounded the Cardinals 50-31 and dished out 19 assists.
"Coach (Lora Westling) is preaching to us right now to just find joy in every single thing that we're doing, so we've found joy again in basketball,'' Dewey said. "It wasn't really lost but we're showing it now.
"We weren't showing that we were having fun and once we started showing that we're having fun it all started clicking better.''
Westling agreed.
"Winning cures everything,'' Westling said. "Credit to our players, we just have continued to talk about just getting better one day at a time, one percent better every day and we're trying to do that.
"We've got a great group and everybody's contributing.''
William Jewell (1-4) hung with the Ichabods early, trailing 12-8 with 1:58 left in the opening quarter and 19-13 at the end of the period.
The Cardinals were still within 23-19 with 8:03 left in the half, but Washburn ran off 17 unanswered points to take control at 40-19 with 4:44 remaining in the half and led 47-27 at the break.
Washburn stretched its advantage to 24 points twice in the first 3:30 of the third quarter and William Jewell got no closer than 16 the rest of the way despite a late flurry of 3-pointers.
Both teams canned 10 3-pointers on the night while WU shot 47.9 percent overall, compared to 32.8 percent shooting for the Cardinals.
Emree Zars led William Jewell with 15 points while Chloe Frank added 14, including four 3-pointers, and Ayden Shannon 13.
Washburn will be back in action Saturday, hosting Barclay in a 4 p.m. contest at Lee Arena.
WASHBURN WOMEN 86, WILLIAM JEWELL 66
William Jewell 13 14 21 18 -- 66
Washburn 19 28 22 17 -- 86
William Jewell (1-4)
Frank 4-13 2-2 14, Porter 1-2 3-3 5, Zars 6-14 1-2 15, A. Shannon 4-14 4-6 13, Knock 0-1 0-0 0, Hillyer 1-6 5-6 8, Arnold 0-3 0-0 0, B. Shannon 1-1 0-2 3, Boylan 0-0 0-0 0, Behling 1-3 1-1 3, Jones 2-4 0-0 6. Totals 20-61 16-22 66.
WASHBURN (4-1)
Amekporfor 3-9 0-1 6, Nwidadah 6-11 1-2 13, Dewey 9-15 2-2 23, Schieferecke 2-6 0-0 5, Wayne 1-4 1-2 3, Giovannetti 6-10 0-0 17, Boyd 3-5 2-2 8, Gamble 1-3 0-0 3, Davison 3-5 0-0 6, Snyder 0-4 0-0 0, McKenzie 1-1 0-1 2. Totals 35-73 6-10 86.
3-point goals -- William Jewell 10-30 (Frank 4-12, Jones 2-4, Zars 2-5, A. Shannon 1-2, Hillyer 1-4, Behling 0-2, Knock 0-1), Washburn 10-22 (Giovannetti 5-8, Dewey 3-3, Schieferecke 1-3, Gamble 1-3, Amekporfor 0-5), Rebounds -- William Jewell 31 (Zars 6), Washburn 50 (Nwidadah 15, Schieferecke 9). Assists -- William Jewell 13 (Porter 4), Washburn 19 (Dewey 8). Turnovers -- William Jewell 7, Washburn 11. Total fouls -- William Jewell 11, Washburn 16. Fouled out -- none. Technical fouls -- none.
