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Two of Washburn University's six regular-season men's basketball losses came at the hands of Missouri Western, but Brett Ballard's Ichabods took no chances of that happening a third time, going wire to wire for a 101-72 romp past the Griffons in the MIAA Tournament semifinals Friday night at Maryville, Mo.
With the victory the 18-6 Ichabods advanced to the 6 p.m. championship game Saturday against 23-1 Northwest Missouri on the Bearcats' home court. Northwest Missouri, whose lone loss on the year came against Washburn, advanced to the championship game with a 104-72 win over Central Oklahoma.
Washburn rode 9-0 and 18-0 first-half runs to a commanding 57-29 cushion over Missouri Western and never looked back, leading by as many as 35 points in the second half.
“We played terrific,” Washburn coach Brett Ballard told KTPK radio. “The first couple of times we played them I thought they were the more aggressive team, so we really tried to emphasize to our guys that we wanted to come out and attack them and we were really good that first 20 minutes. I thought our guys executed at a high level.
"Everybody was good, and certainly when you score 57 points in a half, there's a lot of things going well.''
Junior Jalen Lewis finished with a career-high 29 points while connecting on 6 of 9 3-point attempts. Senior Tyler Geiman backed Lewis with 21 points and a huge 12 assists while junior Jonny Clausing added 16 points as WU 62 percent from the field (38 of 62) with 14 3-pointers.
![Jalen Lewis scored a career-high 29 points as Washburn advanced to the MIAA Tournament title game with a 101-72 romp past Missouri Western. [File photograph from Rex Wolf/TSN]](/images/aa-images/Jalen_Lewis.jpg)
Jalen Lewis scored a career-high 29 points as Washburn advanced to the MIAA Tournament title game with a 101-72 romp past Missouri Western. [File photograph from Rex Wolf/TSN]
Lewis credited his teammates, and particularly Geiman, for setting up his big night.
“TY (Geiman) obviously, he's great,'' Lewis told KTPK. "He just gets me the ball in (good) spots and I just have to do what I do and knock down shots.”
Washburn will be playng Northwest Missouri in the MIAA Tournament championship game for the third time over the past four seasons.
"I'm proud about that,'' Ballard told KTPK. "Three years out of four in the MIAA championship game in this league, I think that's something that our program should be very proud about.
"That's a credit to our guys and the consistency that they;ve played with and how hard they've worked.''
The Ichabods handed the Bearcats their lone loss at Northwest in early Jan., taking an 84-82 overtime decision before WU lost to Northwest Missouri 88-85 in OT on Feb. 20 at Lee Arena.
Former Manhattan star Trevor Hudgins, the two-time MIAA player of the year, leads the Bearcats.
“It’s a big opportunity for us, playing the best team in the country on their floor,” Ballard said of the title game matchup. “It will be a big-time challenge. We've got a ton of respect for their program, their coaches and their players and how they've done it and how good they've been and how they run their program, but I'm excited to watch our guys go compete.''
WASHBURN MEN 101, MISSOURI WESTERN 72
Missouri Western 29 43 -- 72
Washburn 57 44 -- 101
MISSOURI WESTERN (14-10)
Glover 0-6 0-0 0, Mays 6-15 4-5 17, Eames 3-8 0-1 8, John 3-4 5-6 11, Bennett 7-8 2-2 19, Mesmacque 1-1 0-0 2, Martin 0-0 2-2 2, Bubak 1-2 0-0 2, Siganos 0-3 0-0 0, Dolan 0-0 0-0 0, Thames 4-7 2-4 11, Carroll 0-2 0-0 0, Anderson 0-1 0-0 0, Chukwuemeke 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 25-57 15-20 72.
WASHBURN (18-6)
Geiman 8-18 4-4 21, Nelson 2-5 0-2 5, Lewis 11-15 1-2 29, McKee 3-4 1-1 9, Williams 1-2 1-1 3, Deffebaugh 1-2 1-2 4, Carter 2-2 1-1 5, Braun 3-3 0-0 9, Keegan 0-0 0-0 0, Cordes 0-1 0-0 0, Davidson 0-0 0-0 0, Ross 0-0 0-0 0, Thorne 0-1 0-0 0, Clausing 7-9 2-2 16. Totals 38-62 11-15 101.
3-point goals -- Missouri Western 7 (Bennett 3, Eames 2, Mays, Thames), Washburn 14 (Lewis 6, Braun 3, McKee 2, Geiman, Nelson, Deffebaugh). Rebounds -- Missouri Western 27 (Martin 4, John 4), Washburn 35 (Clausing 6). Assists -- Missouri Western 11 (Mays 4), Washburn 20 (Geiman 12). Turnovers -- Missouri Western 12; Washburn 11. Fouled out — Clausing.
