By RICK PETERSON
TopSports.news
With the Washburn men's basketball team coming off its first loss of the season and the Ichabods playing without three injured veterans, Ichabod coach Brett Ballard probably would have settled for any kind of bounce-back win in Thursday's MIAA home contest against Missouri Southern.
Instead, Ballard's No. 8-ranked Ichabods put on a show, tying a school-record with 18 3-pointers on the way to a 99-58 romp past the Lions, WU's largest margin of victory in 84 all-time meetings with Southern.
Tyler Geiman
"I'm proud of our team,'' Ballard said. "We're beat up big-time. We were without basically three starters, who were injured, and our freshman class is out because of COVID tracing, so we had nine healthy bodies and really only two bigs and you're going against the best big guy (Cam Martin) in Division II, so needless to say I was nervous coming into this game.
"But our guys, I loved the fight they showed and the togetherness that they played with and I thought we played obviously really well on both sides of the ball.''
And with the way the Ichabods were shooting the ball Thursday -- 59.4 percent from the field (38 of 64) and 51.4 from 3-point range (18 of 35) -- it was going to be hard for just about any time to beat WU.
Senior point guard Tyler Geiman, who continued his outstanding play with game-highs of 28 points, 10 assists and 7 rebounds, hit Washburn's first 3-pointer 65 seconds into the game and the floodgates opened from there as redshirt freshman Levi Braun and junior Jalen Lewis combined for 11 3s on a combined 11 of 12 shooting from deep.
Braun hit his first six 3-point attempts and was 6 of 7 overall on the way to a career-high 19-point effort, while Lewis hit all five of his attempts from outside the arc and also finished with 19 points on the night.
"Me and Jalen, we partner shoot all the time and get our jumpers together, so we feel like that's going to translate to the game and tonight it definitely did,'' said Braun, the former Hayden star.
Rathen Carter was 3 of 5 on 3s and was the fourth Ichabod in double figures with 15 points as Washburn improved to 9-1 overall and in the league.
Washburn played without senior Drew Maschoff and juniors Jonny Clausing and Will McKee, who are all nursing injuries.
The Ichabods took a 47-33 lead into the break after shooting 59 percent from the (17 of 29 from the field) as the Ichabods and using an 11-0 run over a 2:20 stretch of the first half to turn a 31-27 lead into a 42-27 margin over the Lions (4-5 overall and in the league).
Washburn went on to shoot 60 percent in the second half with nine 3s while out-scoring the Lions by a 52-25 margin.
Martin led the Lions with 26 points and tied Geiman for game-high rebounding honors with 7 boards..
The Ichabods return to action on Saturday, hosting Pittsburg State in a 3 p.m. game.
WASHBURN MEN 99, MISSOURI SOUTHERN 58
Mo. Southern 33 25 — 58
Washburn 47 52 — 99
MISSOURI SOUTHERN (4-5, 4-5)
Smith 2-6 3-4 8, Martin 12-17 1-3 26, Collins 1-5 1-2 3, Scott 2-8 0-0 4, Taggart 1-4 0-0 2, Bundy 1-1 0-0 2, Jenkins 4-8 0-0 12, Younge 0-2 1-2 1, Selcuk 0-0 0-0 0, Parker 0-2 0-0 0, Jackson 0-1 0-0 0, McMullen 0-1 0-0 0. Totals 23-55 6-11 58.
WASHBURN (9-1, 9-1)
Carter 6-8 0-0 15, Geiman 12-16 2-2 28, Lewis 7-12 0-0 19, Williams 2-2 2-2 6, Nelson 3-5 0-0 8, Deffebaugh 1-6 0-0 2, Braun 6-7 1-1 19, Thorne 1-4 0-0 2, Cordes 0-4 0-0 0. Totals 38-64 5-5 99.
3-point goals — Missouri Southern 6-22 (Jenkins 4-8, Smith 1-3, Martin 1-3, Collins 0-2, Scott 0-2, Taggart 0-2, Younge 0-1, McMullen 0-1), Washburn 18-35 (Braun 6-7, Lewis 5-5, Carter 3-5, Geiman 2-6, Nelson 2-4, Deffebaugh 0-3, Cordes 0-3, Thorne 0-2). Rebounds — Missouri Southern 27 (Martin 7), Washburn 34 (Geiman 7). Assists — Missouri Southern 11 (Smith 3, Martin 3), Washburn 17 (Geiman 10). Turnovers — Missouri Southern 18, Washburn 10. Total fouls — Missouri Southern 8, Washburn 11. Fouled out — none. Technical fouls — none.
