By RICK PETERSON
TopSports.news
Washburn University women's basketball led after three quarters in its 2024-25 regular-season opener at St. Cloud, Minn. but a 23-9 fourth quarter gave Southwest Minnesota State an 82-72 victory in the Central Region Crossover.
Junior Yibari Nwidadah scored a career-high 22 points in Washburn's 82-72 season-opening loss to Southwest Minnesota State. [File photo/TSN]
The Ichabods return to action against the host, St. Cloud State at 4 p.m. on Saturday.
Yibari Nwidadah opened the game with the first basket of the season for WU to go up 30 seconds into the game. With 6:08 left in the quarter Aniah Wayne sunk the first 3-pointer of the season as the Ichabods went up 9-6, but the next seven points all went to the Mustangs (1-0). A strong shooting first quarter at 46.15 percent led Southwest Minnesota State to a 20-14 lead.
The first five points of the second quarter came from the Ichabods (0-1), and a 3-pointer from Payton Sterk closed the gap to one point at the 9:02 mark.
Finally, Washburn was able to tie the game at 29 on Brooke Gomez's first collegiate points with 4:19 left to go in the half.
The Ichabod offense kept churning, shooting 9-15 in the quarter, but the Mustangs remained ahead thanks to shooting 10-12 at the line in the period. Heading into the break it was 39-35 in favor of Southwest Minnesota State.
After a layup with 4:55 to play in the third pushed the Mustang lead to seven points, Washburn went on a 10-2 run to take the lead on a jumper by Sterk at the 2:08 mark. Five points in the final minute of the quarter, coming on another triple from Wayne and a driving layup by Sterk made it 63-59 for the Ichabods after three.
The Mustangs began the fourth quarter scoring the first six points to go back in front. After Nwidadah hit a layup to with 7:39 left to pull within one, the next 10 points were scored by Southwest Minnesota State before another Nwidadah layup 3:37 later. The lead never got smaller than nine from that point as Washburn fell by 10 points.
The Ichabods shot a healthy 42.6 percent from the floor, going 29-68 while also shooting 6-15 from deep. Washburn out-rebounded the Mustangs, 35-34, and had two more assists to go along with two less turnovers. The difference came at the free throw line, where Southwest Minnesota State was 29-33 while the Ichabods were 8-15.
While the Mustangs committed more turnovers, they did more with fewer opportunities, scoring 25 points off giveaways compared to 16 on the other end.
Nwidadah led a group of four players in double figures for Washburn, scoring a career-high 22 points on 9-14 shooting with five rebounds. Sterk had 18 in her Washburn debut along with five boards. Gabi Giovannetti had 13 points and four assists while Wayne made three 3s and scored 10 points.
Bri Stoltzman had 28 points on 10-13 shooting with eight rebounds to lead the Mustangs. Peyton Blandin had 17 and Audrey Swanson also had 16.
