By RICK PETERSON
TopSports.news
Coming off arguably its biggest win of the season, Washburn’s women’s basketball team will open its bid in the MIAA Tournament Wednesday night at Central Missouri.
The Ichabods, who are making their 31st-straight appearance in the MIAA Tournament, are the No. 7 seed and will face the No. 2-seeded Jennies in a 6 p.m. contest.
Washburn, 11-11 on the season, is coming off a 74-64 home win over Emporia State while the Jennies are coming off a 79-45 win over Lincoln, improving to 19-3 on the season.
Central Missouri is the defending MIAA Tournament champ.
Senior Huntley Bentley averages a team-high 15.5 points for the Ichabods, while also averaging 6.2 rebounds, 2.5 assists and 1.6 steals.
Hunter Bentley leads Washburn into Wednesday's MIAA Tournament opener at Central Missouri. [Photo by Rex Wolf/TSN]
Junior Nuria Barrientos averages 10.6 points and 8 rebounds for Washburn, while freshman Mackenzie Gamble is coming off a career-high 22-point performance against Emporia State, hitting 6 of 12 3-pointers.
Nija Collier averages 15.3 points and 8.5 rebounds for Central Missouri while Graycen Holden averages 12.3 ponts and Olivia Nelson 11.5..
Washburn holds a 40-25 advantage in the all-time series with Central Missouri, but the Jennies have won 11 of the last 13 meetings.
The Jennies swept the two regular-season games with WU this season, including a 62-56 win over the Ichabods in the most recent meeting.
The winner of Wednesday’s quarterfinal game will advance to a semifinal on Saturday to take on the winner of the game between No. 3 seed Nebraska-Kearney and No. 6 Pittsburg State.
The semifinal games and championship will be held at the highest remaining seed.
