By RICK PETERSON
TopSports.news
Washburn University women's basketball fell 63-51 in the final game of the Central Region Crossover on Saturday afternoon to host St. Cloud State.
Washburn junior Payton Sterk led all scorers with 14 points in Saturday's 63-51 loss to St. Cloud State. [Photo courtesy of Washburn Athletics]
The Ichabods will return to play next week at the Quincy Classic against McKendree at 5 p.m. on Friday, Nov. 15.
A 3-pointer 20 seconds into the game by Brooke Gomez put Washburn (0-2) up early.
The next five points came from the Huskies (2-0) as the Ichabods were held off the scoreboard until the 5:51 mark when Yibari Nwidadah broke free for a layup.
Eight first-quarter turnovers prevented Washburn from getting in rhythm. Still, the Ichabods trailed just 15-11 after 10 minutes.
Scoring came quickly for both sides to begin the second quarter. Five straight Ichabod points came from Gabi Giovannetti to pull within a point at the 8:13 mark. St. Cloud State was able to push the lead back up to six but back-to-back buckets by Nwidadah brought it back down to a two-point game. The Ichabods shot 6-13 (46.15 percent) in the quarter to keep the deficit at two points going into halftime, 28-26.
Coming out of the break a layup by Payton Sterk made it 33-31 with 5:27 left in the third quarter.
From that point on the Huskies outscored Washburn 14-2 to end the quarter shooting 7-16 overall with three triples. Heading into the fourth the deficit was the largest of the game at 47-33.
Sterk and Aniah Wayne each knocked down 3-pointers to begin the final quarter. The lead was shrunk down to five shortly after, this time after Madelyn Amekporfor connected from deep.
After a timeout the Huskies settled in, scoring the next six points. Washburn was unable to cut the lead down to any lower than nine the rest of the way as the hosts held on for a 63-51 win.
The Ichabods shot 19-48 (39.6) overall and were 6-21 from beyond the arc. St. Cloud State was 25-57 (43.9) from the floor and 6-17 from deep.
Washburn turned the ball over 28 times leading to 25 points for the Huskies while the Ichabods managed 15 points on 19 giveaways.
St. Cloud State also had narrow advantages on the boards, 33-29, and in assists, 16-12.
Sterk led all scorers with 14 points while adding six assists and a pair of steals. Nwidadah had eight points and nine rebounds while Giovannetti had nine points.
Jada Eggebrecht had 12 points and four assists for the Huskies. Alana Zarneke was the only other player to finish in double figures with 10.
