By RICK PETERSON
TopSports.news
Washburn University's women outscored Missouri Western 18-10 in the fourth quarter and cut wht had been a 24-point deficit to eight points, but the Griffons fought off the Ichabods for a 57-44 MIAA win Saturday afternoon at Lee Arena.
Missouri Western (8-4 overall, 3-2 MIAA) led from start to finish as the Griffons, an NCAA Elite Eight team a year ago, scored the first four points of the afternoon and ended the opening quarter on a 5-0 run to go up, 17-9.
Washburn junior point guard Aubree Dewey had 16 points, six rebounds and seven assists in the Ichabods' 57-44 MIAA loss to Missouri Western. [Photo by Rex Wolf/TSN]
The Griffons then ran off 12 straight points in the second quarter and held the Ichabods (4-5, 1-3) scoreless until the 3:04 mark, opening up a commanding 35-18 advantage at the half.
"I thought we had a rough start,'' Washburn coach Lora Westling said. "We just struggled to get in rhythm. We ran a couple of things to get some looks and turned those down and that's just lack of confidence.
"I thought we took the first punches and you can't do that against team that good. You've got to come out swinging yourselves''
Missouri Western used an 8-0 run in third quarter to go up 47-23 with 4:51 on the clock before Washburn freshman Gabi Artis hit a 3-pointer with 1:41 remaining to cut the Griffons' lead to 47-26 at tne start of the fourth stanza.
Washburn junior Aubree Dewey hit a jumper with 8:11 on the clock to spark a 7-0 run to make it a 48-33 game.
Then, after a pair of Missouri Western free throws, the Ichabods put together an 11-2 rally over the next three and a half minutes to get within 52-44 but that would be as close as WU got.
"Credit to our kids,'' Westling said. "They didn't stay on the mat too long. They did bounce up, they did fight back and had a chance to cut it to six. That's saying something against a good team. We just need to be more aggressive out of the jump.''
The Ichabod defense held the Griffons to 21 points less than their season scoring average as Missouri Western ended the game shooting 41.2 percent from the floor while Washburn shot just 30.6 percent.
Missouri Western forced 24 Washburn turnovers and converted that into 23 points.
Dewey led the Ichabods with 16 points, six rebounds and seven assists.
Mackenzie Gamble added nine points and Natalia Figueroa eight for the Ichabods.
Three Griffons finished in double-figures, led by Brionna Budgetts' 14 points.
Connie Clarke recorded a double-double for Western with 11 points and 18 rebounds.
The Ichabods will return to Lee Arena on Dec. 29 at 7 p.m. to face Bethany.
