By RICK PETERSON
TopSports.news
Washburn University's men's basketball team led for all but 11 seconds, and for that span it was tied, as the hot-shooting Ichabods topped Missouri Western for the fourth straight time, sweeping the regular season series with a 79-64 road win Thursday night in St. Joseph, Mo.
Making his first start of the season after coming back from an injury, 6-foot-9 Jonny Clausing scored 24 points on 9 of 14 shooting and grabbed 12 rebounds for his third double-double while adding a career-high 36 minutes.
Jonny Clausing scored 24 points and grabbed 12 rebounds in Washburn's 79-64 road win at Missouri Western Thursday night. [File photo by Kyle Manthe/The Washburn Review]
Washburn (16-9 overall, 13-6 MIAA) led 45-32 at the break after hitting 67 percent of its shots from the field, going 18 of 27 overall and a perfect 5 of 5 from 3-point range while holding the Griffons to 12 of 33 shooting in the opening 20 minutes.
The Ichabods opened the second half on an 8-2 run to push out to a game-high 19-point lead over the Griffons (12-14, 8-10 MIAA).
A 3-pointer by the Griffons to cap a 22-11 run trimmed the Ichabod lead to eight at 64-56 with 7:43 to go, but Washburn went on a 13-3 run over a 4:26 stretch to build the margin back to 18 at 77-59 before the Ichabods closed out the 15-point win.
Following Clausing's 24 points, which was one shy of his career-high, were three other Ichabod starters in double figures.
Jalen Lewis scored 14 points and Tyler Geiman and Michael Keegan added 13 apiece for Washburn, while Geiman added eight assists and three steals and Keegan chipped in four boards and two blocks.
Will Eames led the Griffons with 16 points.
Washburn finished the game shooting 61 percent from the field, hitting 30 of 49 shots overall and going 6 of 11 from 3-point range. WU hit 13 of 18 free throws.
The Griffons were held to 40 percent shooting (22 of 55) and hit 12 3-pointers in the game.
The Ichabods outscored the Griffons 44 to 16 in the paint and also outrebounded Missouri Western, 30-27.
Washburn will return to the road to face Northwest Missouri on Saturday at 3:30 p.m. in Maryville.
COLD SHOOTING DOOMS WU WOMEN IN 67-44 LOSS
The Washburn women's basketball team dropped a 67-44 MIAA decision at Missouri Western on Thursday evening.
Missouri Western (20-5, 14-5 MIAA) jumped out to a 6-2 advantage before Washburn scored four unanswered points to tie the score midway through the opening quarter.
The Griffons scored on their next possession and held a 14-10 lead at the end of the quarter.
The Griffons extended their advantage to double-digits and hit three treys in the second quarter while the Ichabods (12-12, 10-8 MIAA) were unable to find their rhythm offensively.
Aubree Dewey scored the final points of the first half on the and-one free throw after being fouled on her made layup with four seconds remaining to cut Missouri Western's lead to 29-19 at the break.
Missouri Western pulled away in the third, outscoring Washburn 20-9, and went into the final quarter with a 49-28 advantage.
The Griffons maintained their double-figure lead for the rest of the game as they went on to claim the 23-point victory.
Washburn was held to shooting a season-low 30 percent from the field while Missouri Western shot 41.4 percent.
The Griffons made 6 of 21 shots from 3-point range and the Ichabods hit just 2 of 9 from deep with Hunter Bentley making both.
MWSU finished with the advantage on the glass, 48-32.
Bentley led the Ichabods with 16 points and tied for the team lead in rebounds with six.
Connie Clarke paced the Griffons with 20 points and 17 rebounds.
The Ichabods will close out their road trip at Northwest Missouri on Saturday at 1:30 p.m.
