By RICK PETERSON
TopSports.news
The No. 5-ranked Washburn Ichabods' historic men's basketball season came to an end Thursday night in Evansville, Ind., with top-ranked Nova Southeastern rolling to a 94-68 win in the NCAA National semifinals.
Senior Andrew Orr ended his Washburn career with 13 points and eight rebounds in Thursday's 94-68 national semifinal loss to Nova Southeastern. [Photo courtesy of Washburn Athletics/TSN]
Washburn, which won the MIAA regular-season title and the NCAA Central Regional championship, finished the season with a 30-4 record.
"Nova was really good, really from the jump, and I think they deserve a lot of credit,'' Washburn coach Brett Ballard told KTPK Radio. "They came out really turned up, which they normally do, and they played well.
"There's a lot of things that didn't go our way. I thought we let their pressure speed us up a little bit and we had some turovers early, which kind of gave them some momentum. It just wasn't our night.''
The Ichabods scored the first bucket of the game on a layup by senior Andrew Orr, but a hot-shooting Sharks squad finished the opening half connecting on 19 of 33 shots for a 57 percent clip, including 7 of 13 from deep, as Nova Southeastern (35-1) took a 53-29 lead into the break.
Washburn played Nova Southeastern nearly even in the second half, with the Ichabods improving to 50 percent from the field (15 of 30), but WU could not cut into the Shark lead as the Ichabods were outscored 41-39 in the half.
"All credit to them,'' WU senior Michael Keegan told KTPK Radio. "They played really great, they shot the ball well early on, we had a couple of turnovers that they turned into quick points and before you know it we're down 12 and then we're down 15.''
Senior Jacob Hanna led the Ichabods with 15 points, while Orr tallied 13 on 6 of 9 shooting with a team-high eight rebounds.
Sophomore Jack Bachelor finished with 11 points.
Ryker Cisarik led the Sharks with 28 points and the NCAA Division II Player of the Year, MJ Iraldi, scored 25.
Washburn finished at 46 percent from the field, going 26 of 57.
The Sharks finished 34 of 69 for a 49 percent clip, hitting 12 of 26 3-point attempts.
For only the third time on the season the Ichabods were topped on the glass, 39-32.
Washburn outscored the Sharks 40-36 in the paint and 12-2 in fast break points.
The 2024-25 Ichabods became the second team in program history to reach the 30-win mark, joining the 1986-87 NAIA National Championship team, which was 35-4.
