Washburn University women's basketball enters the MIAA Tournament as the No. 3 seed and will face off with No. 6 seed Pittsburg State at 2:15 p.m. Friday in the quarterfinal round in Kansas City, Mo.
All-MIAA first-team pick Yibari Nwidadah leads Washburn women's basketball into Friday's MIAA Tournament quarterfinal against Pittsburg State. [File photo/TSN]The Ichabods are 21-7 on the season, a three-win improvement over last season, and are trying to wrap up a berth in the NCAA Tournament for the first time since the 2012-2013 season. Washburn is currently ranked No. 6 in the NCAA Central Region rankings with eight teams advancing to the tournament.
"We're just trying not to look too much in advance,'' Washburn senior standout Yibari Nwidadah said. "We're trying to take each day as it is and we're trying to get better still.
"We still have things we can improve on and I feel like everyone in our locker room has that same mindset of getting better today, getting better tomorrow and better the day after that.''
If the Ichabods are able to garner an NCAA berth, Nwidadah said it would be a major accomplishment for the program, which has made a 10-win improvement from her freshman season in 2022-2023.
"It would be amazing,'' Nwidadah said. "That's been the goal for me and the goal for the program overall, to bring the program back to tournament level, so just getting the opportunity to do that would be special for all of us.
"We're just trying to take care of business like we need to and not leave anything up to chance.''
Washburn coach Lora Westling agreed.
"I think that's been the message to our team is that (the selection process) is out of our control and trust me, that gets a little more wild than you think,'' Westling said. "But what we do have control over is our effort and our execution against Pitt State, a really good team that has the talent and the ability to play really well.
"So all of our energy is into that game. I think this program, thankfully, is starting to move past the, 'Just happy to be here' mentality and focused on, 'How do we get the job done?' I know this group really wants to get the job done in Kansas City and hopefully we're mature enough to make a run at it. ''
Washburn finished the regular season on a six-game win streak, defeating Missouri Southern 83-64 last Saturday, while Pittsburg State closed out the regular season with a 73-58 road loss to Central Missouri and is 18-10 on the season.
Washburn is 43-25 overall in the MIAA Tournament.
Washburn landed three players on the 2025-26 All-MIAA squad, headlined by first-team pick Nwidadah, who also earned All-Defensive team recognition.
Nwidadah is the first Washburn first-team All-MIAA selection since Laura Kinderknecht in 2012-13.
"I was pretty surprised and obviously excited, too,'' Nwidadah said. "It just goes back to everything we've done as a team. I could never have done that without our team.''
Senior Payton Sterk earned All-MIAA second-team honors for the second time in her two seasons with Washburn while senior Gabi Giovannetti received all-conference honorable mention.
Nwidadah is averaging 11.5 points and a team-high 7.3 rebounds while also shooting a team-high 57.5 percent from the floor.
Sterk leads the Ichabods with a 12.3 scoring averag while hitting a team-high 48 3-pointers.
Giovannetti is scoring 11.1 points per game and is second on the team with 40 3-pointers.
