By RICK PETERSON
TopSports.news
After falling behind by double digits early in Sunday night's NCAA Central Regional semifinal in Lee Arena, Concordia-St. Paul made run after run at top seed Washburn University, but the Ichabods answered each and every challenge, advancing to Tuesday night's regional final with a 94-78 win over the Golden Bears.
Senior Jacob Hanna scored a team-high 24 points in Washburn's 94-78 NCAA regional win over Concordia-St. Paul Sunday. [Photo by Rex Wolf/TSN]
"I don't know that there's a better Division II atmosphere, or really at any level, than what we just played in tonight,'' Washburn coach Brett Ballard said. "Our fans were phenomenal. They gave us a ton of energy once again, so shout out to Topeka and everybody that showed up.
"I loved that our team had to battle through some stuff and didn't flinch. The body language was great, the composure was good and every time they had a run we had an answer for it.''
The Ichabods will play for the regional championship for the first time since 2001 at 7 p.m. Tuesday, facing No. 2 seed Minnesota State-Moorhead, a 70-59 semifinal winner over No. 3 Winona State.
Washburn, now 28-3, started the game on a 17-7 run in the first 4:34 of the game while hitting 6 of 8 shots, including 2 of 3 from deep while the Bears (22-9) started the game 2 of 8 from the field.
The Ichabods went on to go up 30-16 at the 10:20 mark, but Concordia-St. Paul answered with a 17-4 run to cut the WU lead to 34-33.
Concordia-St. Paul also got within a point (36-35) with 1:44 left in the half on a bucket from Bears senior star Antwan Kimmons, but Washburn answered with a 3-pointer from sophomore Jack Bachelor and senior Jacob Hanna scored to give the Ichabods a 41-35 advantage.
After another hoop from Kimmons, who led all scorers with 25 points, Washburn ended the half with a tip-in from from freshman Dillon Claussen to take a 43-37 advantage to the locker room at the break.
"That's a great player,'' Hanna said of Kimmons, "and he might have got the best of me a couple of times, but I'm just happy we came out with the win.''
Washburn boosted its advantage back to 13 points (57-44) with 14:52 remaining on a 3-pointer from junior Brady Christiansen, but the Bears fought back to within three (65-62) with 9:53 left.
But again, Washburn had an answer, going on a 9-2 run, punctuated by a monster dunk from senior Michael Keegan, to go back in front by 10 (74-64) at the 7:53 mark.
"You saw the crowd react,'' Hanna said of Keegan's dunk. "That's the loudest in the gym I think I've ever heard after that dunk and going into the timeout that gave us a lot of energy and a big boost.''
Concordia-St. Paul got no closer than eight the rest of the way and the Ichabods opened up a commanding 94-74 lead with 53 seconds left before closing out the 16-point win.
Washburn shot a blistering 58 percent from the field in the second half while getting a double-double from Hanna with 24 points and 10 rebounds.
Sophomore Jack Bachelor scored 21 points with three treys and five assists in Washburn's 94-78 NCAA regional win over Concordia-St. Paul Sunday. [Photo by Rex Wolf/TSN]
Bachelor scored 21 (3 of 3 3-pointers) with five assists and senior Andrew Orr finished with 16 points with five boards.
Claussen came off the bench to reach double figures for the second straight game, scoring 10 points with five boards and four blocks.
Senior Marcus Skeete backed Kimmons with 17 points for the Golden Bears.
Minnesota State-Moorhead led virtually the entire game against Winona State in its semifinal win, getting 26 points (five 3s) from freshman guard Carson Johnson.
MSU-Moorhead leads the all-time series 1-0, topping the Ichabods 79-77 on Nov. 12, 2023 in Kansas City's Municipal Auditorium in a game that saw 13 lead changes.
"It's going to be the toughest challenge we've had this year,'' Ballard said. "This region we believe is one of the best, if not the best, in the country and the two top teams are going at each other, so it's going to take everything that we've got. It's going to be a challenge.''
The last time the Ichabods played in a regional final was in Lee Arena, topping Northwest Missouri 67-61 in the 2001 NCAA South Central regional final.
