By RICK PETERSON
TopSports.news
The No. 1-ranked Washburn University Ichabods will hit the road for a pair of games this week, starting with Northwest Missouri on Wednesday night (7:30 p.m.) in Maryville, Mo., WU's second game with the Bearcats in 11 days.
Senior Jacob Hanna and the No. 1-ranked Washburn men will put their 17-0 record on the line in Wednesday's MIAA contest at Northwest Missouri. [File photo/TSN]
The Ichabods moved to 17-0 overall and 8-0 in the MIAA with a Newman 121-73 win over Newman last Saturday in Lee Arena.
Northwest is 4-13 and 2-6 in the MIAA after falling 72-65 at Fort Hays State on Saturday, the Bearcats third straight loss.
The Ichabods won the last meeting with the Bearcats 96-66 on Jan. 11 in Lee Arena.
Washburn is off to its best start to begin a season since starting the 2003-04 season 16-0 en route to the MIAA regular-season championship.
The Ichabod record for the most wins to start the season is 19, coming in the 1992-93 season.
Washburn is now one of two undefeated teams remaining in the NCAA Division II ranks, joining No. 2 Daemen (14-0).
Ichabod senior Andrew Orr became the 28th member of the Ichabod 1,000 point club at Fort Hays State earlier this season and now has 1,133 career points, sitting in 17th all-time. Next on the chart is Jemi Johnson in 16th place with 1,215 career points from 1992-95.
Senior Jacob Hanna paced the Ichabods with a game-high 26 points on 9 of 11 shooting from the field in Saturday's win over Newman, raising his collegiate point total to 1,006 points scoring.
Hanna scored 745 points at Illinois-Springfield and has 261 points as an Ichabod.
Senior Michael Keegan has 921 career points in 113 career games as an Ichabod and he has moved into sixth all-time at Washburn in career blocks with 93. Keegan needs one more to move into the top five all-time at Washburn, passing Bobby Chipman who had 94 from 2009-13.
He is also fifth all-time in career steals with 141, ranking seventh in the nation this season and leading the MIAA in steals with 48. He is ranked eighth in steals per game at 2.82 per game.
Sophomore Brayden Shorter is seventh in the nation in 3-pointers per game at 3.56 and he's ranked seventh in total 3-pointers made at 57.
Emorie Knox leads the Northwest Missouri in scoring with a 12.4 average and Spencer Schomers is averaging 10.1 points.
Wednesday's meeting will be the 123rd between the two schools and Washburn holds a 64-58 lead in the series.
The Ichabods will continue their season on the road at Missouri Western on Saturday before beginning another three-game stretch in Lee Arena with Fort Hays State (Jan. 30), Nebraska-Kearney (Feb. 1) and Central Missouri (Feb. 8).
