No. 1-ranked Washburn University men's basketball turned a six-point halftime lead into a 91-66 MIAA win over Emporia State Saturday in Lee Arena, improving to 14-0 overall and 4-0 in the conference.
Junior Jeremiah Jones scored 20 points with four 3-pointers, four assists and four steals in Washburn's 91-66 win over Emporia State. [Photo by Rex Wolf/TSN]After trailing by as many as five points in the opening half, Washburn rallied for a 45-39 halftime lead, closing the half with a Jack Bachelor 3-pointer, and opened the second half with a 7-0 run to boost its lead to 52-39 at the 18:11 mark.
Washburn went up 59-43 at the 15:40 mark of the second half and increased its cushion to 18 (64-46) with 14 minutes remaining before leading by as many as 28 points late in the game.
"The beginning of halves are important,'' Washburn coach Brett Ballard said. "I kind of think we gave them life in the first half and in the second half did a much better job. There may have been a little bit of rust in that first half that we needed to knock off, but second half that first five minutes really set the tone. We got steals and converted in transition, which is big.''
Washburn knows that as the top-ranked team in the nation the Ichabods are going to get opponents' best effort and Ballard was happy with how the Ichabods have handled that challenge.
"I think it's going to make us tougher and better as the year goes along,'' Ballard said. "That's what we said at halftime, 'Guys, this is obviously a rivalry game, but a big game for them to try to knock off No. 1. We've got to respond to the challenge.'
"And I think our guys have done a good job of that, just understanding that everybody's going to come in here and give it their best shot.''
Junior Jack Bachelor scored 16 points with four 3-pointers and nine assists in Washburn's 91-66 win over Emporia State Saturday in Lee Arena. [Photo by Rex Wolf/TSN]Junior guard Jack Bachelor was also pleased with how the Ichabods handled Emporia State's early challenge.
"I thought we responded well,'' Bachelor said. "Emporia, props to them. They're a really good team and they've got a lot of shooters and were knocking them down to start the game. but I thought we responded well, especially in the second half. I thought we did a really good job of locking in defensively and trying to make it tougher for them to score.
"I was really proud of our guys' response and how we buckled down on defense.''
Junior Jeremiah Jones paced Washburn with a career-high 20 points on 8 of 10 shooting, including 4 of 5 from beyond the 3-point arc, and added four assists and four steals.
Jones, who has led the nation in steals virtually all season, may be best known for his defense, but showed on Saturday that he is just as dangerous on the offensive end.
"Just knowing that I'm a 3 and 'D' type of player, I can knock it down, I can create for my teammates and just realize that I can help my team on offense and defense,'' Jones said.
Jones admitted that he was 'feeling it' on Saturday, scoring 15 first-half points while hitting all three of his 3-point attempts and coming up with three steals.
"I was feeling great,'' Jones said. "After that first one went in I just knew it was going to be over with after then.''
Sophomore Dillon Claussen scored 16 points with five assists in Washburn's 91-66 win over Emporia State Saturday. [Photo by Rex Wolf/TSN]Sophomore Dillon Claussen finished with 16 points, five assists, four steals and three blocks and Bachelor scored 16 points while hitting four 3-pointers and dishing out nine assists.
Senior Brady Christiansen led the ichabods with eight rebounds.
Washburn also got key contributions off the bench, with Marcus Glock scoring 10 points with five rebounds, sophomore Tyson Ruud scoring nine points and grabbing three rebounds and Sam Ungashick hitting a pair of 3-pointers.
