By RICK PETERSON
TopSports.news
Washburn University women's basketball will begin its 56th season at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday with an exhibition game at Kansas State.
Washburn's Yibari Nwidadah returns for her junior season after averaging 12.4 points and 9.1 rebounds last season. [File photo/TSN]
Washburn is coming off a 13-16 season in 2023-24, finishing 10th in the MIAA with an 8-14 record in the conference and advancing to the first round of the MIAA Tournament.
Kansas State was picked to finish No. 1 in the Big 12 Preseason Coaches Poll and is ranked No. 13 by the Associated Press. The Wildcats are coming off a 26-8 season with a second-round appearance in the NCAA Tournament.
The Ichabods were picked to finish ninth in the MIAA Preseason Media Poll for the 2024-2025 season and were tabbed 10th by the coaches.
Washburn returns eight letter-winners from last season's roster while adding seven new faces, with five incoming freshmen and two junior transfers rounding out the 15-player roster.
The five freshmen are flanked by four sophomores and a junior class that is six players deep. It is the first roster without a senior going back to the 1980's.
Among the returning group the Ichabods will have 70.7 percent of last season's rebounding returning along with 61.6 percent of the scoring.
A season ago Washburn averaged 67.6 points per game while shooting 39.6 percent from the floor, 29.9 from 3-point range and 69.7 from the free throw line. They averaged 39.1 rebounds to go along with 11.2 assists and allowed an average of 65.1 points per game.
Wednesday's matchup against Kansas State is the first for WU since a 68-39 exhibition loss on Oct. 31, 2021.
Yibari Nwidadah leads the group of eight Washburn returners, earning All-MIAA honorable mention as a sophomore. The Olathe native was second on the team with a 12.4 scoring average while shooting a team-high 54.8 percent from the field. She also led the Ichabods with a 9.1 rebounding average, second best in the MIAA. Nwidadah was fifth in the conference with 11 double-doubles.
Aniah Wayne was the third leading scorer for the Ichabods a season ago during her first year in Topeka. As a sophomore she averaged 7.6 points and 2.6 rebounds and made a team-high 45 3-pointers.
Gabi Giovannetti shot a team-high 37.0 percent from behind the 3-point arc a season ago while contributing 6.5 points on 38.0 percent shooting along with 2.1 rebounds and and 1.0 assists. She connected on 30 3-pointers in her sophomore season and had two games with more than 20 points.
Payton Sterk joins Washburn after transferring from Cal State East Bay. The 5-foot-10 guard will be a junior after averaging 18.5 points on 37.6 percent shooting with 5.1 rebounds, 2.3 assists and 1.4 steals a game. She started all 28 games for the Pioneers playing 37.1 minutes per game and made a team-high 83 3-pointers. Sterk is a Colorado Springs, Colo. native.
Kansas State is ranked No. 13 in both the Associated Press and USA Today/WBCA Coaches presason polls. It is the fourth time in program history that K-State is ranked preseason.
Senior Ayoka Lee headlines Kansas State's returners and is the Preseason Big 12 Player of the Year and an AP All-America honorable mention preseason member. Last year she played and started in 27 games averaging 19.7 points with 8.6 rebounds while shooting 61.9 percent. Defensively she tallied 2.8 blocks per game.
Lee holds the NCAA Division I scoring record with 61 points in a game.
Serena Sundell will also be a senior for the Wildcats after posting averages of 12.1 points, 5.6 assists and 3.9 rebounds a season ago. She shot 53.6 percent from the floor and 39.8 from deep while making 35 triples across 34 starts. She was an All-Big 12 first-team selection last season and was named to the Preseason All-Big 12 Team. She led the Big 12 in assists a season ago.
Washburn will head to Lawrence on Friday to face Kansas at 6:30 p.m. in the final exhibition game of the season.
The Ichabods' regular-season opener will be on Nov. 8 against Southwest Minnesota State in St. Cloud Minn. for the Central Region Crossover (1 p.m. tipoff).
WU will play in Lee Arena for the first time on Monday, Nov. 25, against Lincoln University.
MIAA play begins on the road against Nebraska Kearney on Dec. 5.
