By RICK PETERSON
TopSports.news
Washburn University women's basketball will make its long-awaited home debut on Monday, with the Ichabods facing Lincoln in a 6 p.m. contest in Lee Arena.
Washburn women's basketball will make its home court debut at 6 p.m. Monday against Lincoln. [Photo courtesy of Washburn Athletics]
Lora Westling's Ichabods opened the 2024-2025 season with six straight road contests but will come home on a two-game winning streak after a pair of 22-point wins last week.
Washburn is 2-4 on the year after an 81-59 win over Truman State on Friday. The Ichabods posted an 80-58 win at William Jewell last Tuesday.
Lincoln will enter Monday's game 1-0 on after defeating Harris Stowe 58-42 in Jefferson City, Mo. on Nov. 13.
The contest between former MIAAs foes WU and Lincoln will be the 38th meeting between the two teams all-time.
Junior Yibari Nwidadah leads the Ichabods offensively with a 16.5 scoring average on 69.4 percent shooting from the field and leads the team with a 7.0 rebounding average.
Junior Payton Sterk is second on the team in scoring at 15.8 points per game while starting all six contests and playing a team-high 30.2 minutes per game. She is shooting 44.2 percent from the floor and a team-high 41.2% from 3-point range while dishing out a team-high 3.2 assists. She has a team-high 14 3-pointers with nine coming over the last two games where she averaged 23.5 points.
Gabi Giovannetti is averaging 12.0 points while shooting 42.0 percent from the floor and 100.0 percent at the free throw line. The junior has started all six games playing 28.5 minutes per game. She is second on the team with 11 made 3-pointers, five in the last two games.
With 163 career offensive rebounds Nwidadah is 11th in program history and five boards away from moving up to No. 10. In overall rebounds she ranks 32nd in Washburn history with 433. Her career rebounding average of 7.5 is sixth highest in program history.
Sterk delivered her second straight 20-point-plus game against Truman State, scoring 22 on 8-15 shooting and 5-8 on 3-pointers, while Nwidadah had her first double-double on the year with 13 points on 5-6 shooting and 10 boards.
Aniyah Wayne added 11 points on 4-7 shooting off the bench.
Lincoln went 8-20 overall last season while going 4-18 inside the MIAA during its final season in the conference.
Hanne Nybo led Lincoln in its opener with 13 points and also grabbed 12.0 rebounds while Kiara Cabrera also scoring 12.0 points.
Washburn leads the all-time series with Lincoln 36-1. The Ichabods are 18-0 against the Blue Tigers in Lee Arena. The two teams split the season series last year, with the Blue Tigers winning 77-64 in Jefferson City, Mo. while Washburn won 71-62 at home.
Washburn will play its final home game of 2024 against Sterling College at 4 p.m. on Saturday.
The Ichabods begin MIAA play on the road against Nebraska-Kearney on Dec. 5.
