By RICK PETERSON
TopSports.news
Washburn University women's basketball got the early-season monkey off its back with Tuesday's 22-point road romp at William Jewell.
Now the Ichabods will be looking to continue that upswing when they face off with Truman State on Friday at 11 a.m. in Kirksville, Mo. to wrap up their beginning of the season six-game road trip.
Washburn is 1-4 on the year after getting its first win with Tuesday's 80-58 road victory over William Jewell while Truman State will enter the morning matchup at 2-2 after falling 70-64 on the road to Winona State last time out.
Ichabod newcomer Payton Sterk scored a Washburn career-high 25 points Tuesday night as the Ichabods picked up their first victory, 80-58 at William Jewell. [Photo courtesy of Washburn Athletics
"We just had to get that monkey off our back a little bit,'' Washburn coach Lora Westling said. "I've said a lot that I really believe in this team and every team has got to run their own race. Our season started a little slower than we wanted it to, but we're continuing to get better and grow.''
Sophomore Madelyn Amekporfor, who had a seven points and a career-high 10 rebounds against William Jewell, agreed with her coach.
"Our last four games before the last one we knew we were getting better and better each game,'' Amekporfor. "We just knew it was our defense. We couldn't allow teams to score points in the 70s and 80s and we knew our defense was going to win that game. Our goal was to keep them under 60 points and be above 65 and that's exactly what we did and we came out on top.''
The matchup with former MIAA foe Truman State will be the 53rd in the series history.
Junior Yibari Nwidadah leads Washburn offensively with a 17.2 scoring average while also shooting a team and MIAA-high 67.9 percent from the field grabbing a team-best 6.4 rebounds per game. Nationally, Nwidadah is 10th in field goal percentage, shooting over 50.0 percent in every game this season.
Junior Payton Sterk is second on the team in scoring at 14.6 points per game while starting all five contests and playing a team-high 30.8 minutes per game. She is shooting 41.9 percent from the floor and a team-high 34.6 percent from 3-point range while dishing out 3.4 assists, most on the squad.
Gabi Giovannetti is averaging 12.6 points while shooting 43.1 percent from the floor and 100.0 percent at the free throw line. The junior has started all five games and leads the team with 10 made 3-pointers including, seven in the last three games.
Amekporfor, an Andover Central product, is scoring 8.0 points a game on 46.7 percent shooting while starting in all five games.
Sterk led the way with a Washburn career-high of 25 points against William Jewell while Giovannetti added 18 points.
Truman State went 7-21 overall and 4-18 inside the GLVC last year, missing out on the conference tournament.
Molly Joyce leads the Bulldogs at 21.3 points per game on 45.0 percent shooting overall and 38.5 percent from deep. Her scoring average is tops in the GLVC and 14th in the nation.
Maddie Niemeier averages 12.3 points on a team-high 55.0 percent from the field. She is grabbing 4.5 rebounds, most on the team.
Washburn leads the all-time series with Truman State 43-9. The Ichabods are 16-7 against the Bulldogs in Kirksville.
The most recent game in the series between the two teams came on Nov. 25, 2017 and was a 68-67 win for the Ichabods in Lee Arena.
The Ichabods will play inside Lee Arena for the first time at 6 p.m. on Monday against Lincoln University.
"We're really excited about the Truman trip and don't want to overlook that, but it's going to be great to be home in front of our fans and shoot on our goals,'' Westling said. "Our kids are ready, I'm ready and I know our fans are ready and we'll hopefully have a great Thanksgiving week.''
