By RICK PETERSON
TopSports.news
Washburn women's basketball picked up its first win of the 2025-2026 season on Saturday afternoon, riding a late comeback to knock off No. 18-ranked Southwest Minnesota State 63-59 in the Ichabods' final game of the Central Region Challenge in Edmond, Okla.
Britany Kogbara
The Ichabods will return to action inside of renovated Lee Arena against Southwest Baptist at 7 p.m. next Friday at 7 p.m.
Now 1-1 on the young season, Washburn led early Saturday thanks to points in the paint from Yibari Nwidadah and Britany Kogbara. The Ichabod lead reached six points at 15-9 after a driving basket by Brooke Gomez as WU led the Mustangs (2-2) 17-12 after the opening quarter.
Kogbara got the first basket of the second quarter but after that Southwest Minnesota State took over, scoring the next nine points to lead by two. The deficit reached double figures at 33-22 as the Mustangs connected on five 3-pointers in the quarter. Washburn battled through the hot shooting with five more points from Kogbara in the final 90 seconds to give her 15 in the half and cut the Southwest Minnesota State lead to 35-29 at the break.
After the first two points of the half went to Southwest Minnesota State the next 10 points went to the Ichabods as they tied the game with a bucket by Nwidadah and went in front on a pair of free throws by Payton Sterk. Southwest Minnesota State answered right back, going in front by five to end the third quarter leading 47-42.
The Mustangs' lead reached nine with under eight minutes to play. At the 5:36 mark Sterk drilled a 3-pointer to make it 53-49 and start the Ichabod rally. Washburn got within three in the final three minutes and finally came all the way back to tie it up at 59 after Madelyn Amekporfor hit a jumper at the 1:53 mark. She followed with a fastbreak layup to put Washburn in front. The Ichabods forced three straight turnovers and sank free throws on the other end in the final minute to take the four-point win.
Washburn shot 43.3 percent (26 of 60) in the game, playing from the inside out with 44 paint points and just eight 3-point attempts. Southwest Minnesota State shot 41.8 percent and 33.3 percent from deep with six triples.
Rebounding went in favor of the Mustangs 48-25 but the Ichabods made up ground in the possession battle with a 22-8 turnover advantage leading to 26 points while SWMSU scored just two on takeaways.
Kogbara led the way with 15 points on 7 of 11 shooting with a block and steal while Nwidadah scored 14 with a block and steal and Sterk also had 14 points along with four steals and Amekporfor had nine points with a team-high seven boards.
Three players scored in double figures for the Mustangs, led by 17 points from Kylan Gerads and 16 by Nicole Maenke.
