By RICK PETERSON
TopSports.news
The 2022-23 women's basketball season will officially begin for Washburn University and first-year coach Lora Westling this weekend as the Ichabods host the Washburn Crossover Classic Friday and Saturday.
Washburn will open the new year at 6 p.m. Friday against Southwestern Oklahoma State before wrapping up its opening weekend against Oklahoma Baptist at 3 p.m. on Saturday.
"We're really trying to get into this conference challenge focusing on us, what we need to continue to improve on and just with the mindset of having a little more urgency, understanding that now it all counts,'' Westling said.
Washburn point guard Aubree Dewey led the Ichabods with eight points in a 70-27 exhibition loss at nationally-ranked Nebraska on Oct. 30. [Photo courtesy of Washburn Athletics]
The Ichabods fell 70-27 at No. 22 Nebraska in their lone exhibition on Oct. 30 and Westling said despite the lopsided outcome the WU staff saw a lot of things that the team can put to good use moving forward.
"We took a lot of positives out of that,'' Westling said. "Honestly, any time you can play a game like that and have film that's worth watching afterwards and you can build from that, it's worth the trip and that's what we got.
"We were able to see some things where we've been deficient and we needed to get back to work on, but most importantly we saw that our kids were willing to compete against a top 25 team. We went in with some goals and some five-minute battles and we reached a few of them. Not many, but a few of them and I was just really proud of our group for how they stepped up against one of the best teams in the country.''.
Washburn began last season against the Lady Bulldogs and the Bison in Weatherford, Okla., with the Ichabods falling to then-No. 16-ranked Southwestern State Oklahoma, 70-54, before defeating OBU in overtime, 62-50.
The Ichabods' 2021-22 season came to an end in the second round of the MIAA Tournament, with Washburn finishing 14-16.
Washburn returns nine players from last year's team, four of whom started more than 50 percent of the Ichabods' games.
Six of Washburn's losses last year were decided by five or fewer points, with half of those being by two or fewer points.
Senior Abby Oliver has been sidelined by a health issue in preseason but will look to build on her sucessful year last season.
Oliver is the top-returning scorer at 9 points per game, assists (1.8 average), blocks (1.0), and minutes (26.9) while earning All-MIAA Honorable Mention. Oliver turned in 14 double-figure scoring games, including a career-high 20 points at Emporia State.
Macy Doebele started 23 of the 29 games she played in last season and averaged 7.9 points and returns as the top-rebounder with a 5.0 average. She finished the year 71 of 91 from the free throw line (78.0 percent)
Lauren Cassaday played in 28 games last season with 21 starts and averaged 4.0 points, 3.4 rebounds and 20.6 minutes.
Last season shooting guard Mackenzie Gamble made 22 starts and contributed 4.5 points per game and tied for the second-most 3-pointers made for WU with 29.
Aubree Dewey played in all 30 games in the 2021-22 season with four starts. The point guard averaged 3.5 points and 1.6 assists, to go with 15 steals.
Five freshmen join the team for this year -- Gabi Artis (Shawnee), Amaya Davison (Des Moines, Iowa), Natalia Figueroa (Madrid, Spain), Yibari Nwidadah (Olathe) and Lizzy Sanders (Suffolk, England).
The Lady Bulldogs went 29-5 (20-2 GAC) last season and return nine of their players from last year, including two starters. The Bison finished the 2021-22 season with a .500 record at 14-14 and welcome back six players from last year.
In addition to Washburn's games, Pittsburg State will play Oklahoma Baptist on Friday at 4 p.m. and then Southwestern Oklahoma on Saturday at 1 p.m. in Lee Arena.
Former Washburn standout Westling returns to her alma mater after six seasons at Western Colorado, where she compiled a record of 77-78 and led the team to back-to-back NCAA Tournament selections, the first two in program history.
Westling was a member of Washburn's team from 2001-05 and helped the Lady Blues to the school's first NCAA Division II national championship in 2005.
The Ichabods will host another tournament next weekend, Nov. 18-19. Washburn will take on Southern Nazarene next Friday evening and close out the week against Rockhurst on Saturday.
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