After 19 lead changes Southern pulls away to hold off Ichabods

January 24, 2007

Box Score | Season Stats

JOPLIN, Mo. –Washburn and Missouri Southern traded the lead 19 times and neither team was able to lead by more than four until the Lions pulled away in the final minutes and defeated the Ichabods 68-57 Wednesday night at the Leggett and Pratt Center. The Ichabods fell to 6-12 and 2-7 in the conference. They will head to Missouri Western Saturday for a 7:30 p.m. game as they look to snap a four-game losing streak and sweep the Griffons.

Senior forward Frank Phifer led the team in scoring for the 11th time this year and was 7-for-10 as he put in 18. He and junior forward Brady Sisk both came off the bench to reach double figures as Sisk scored 10. Junior guard Andrew Meile led the starters with 15 points and led the team with five rebounds.

Meile scored WU’s first four points and then closed out the first half with a 3-pointer. The Ichabods shot 44 percent in the half while the Lions were 31 percent from the field. WU went in to the locker room with a 28-25 lead.

The two teams came out in the second half and played close to each other the first 10 minutes of the half, exchanging the lead seven times. At 10:53 Sisk made a lay-up to put Washburn up by four, 47-43 for its largest lead of the night. The Lions made a pair of baskets on consecutive possessions to tie the game and then they held the Ichabods without a field goal for 8:34. During that stretch WU missed 11 straight shots from the field and MSSU built a nine-point lead.

Washburn snapped the drought at 2:19 on a basket from Phifer. From then on the Lions made eight of their last 10 free throws and the Ichabods managed just one more basket on a lay-up from Phifer.

Washburn was just 2-of-16 in the final 10 minutes of the game.

The Lions out-rebounded WU 36-34 while the Ichabods had a better field goal percentage, 39 percent to 36 percent.

Notes:
• Junior forward Kyle Snyder injured his shoulder in the first half and is expected to miss the rest of the season.
• In the 60th meeting in the all-time series Washburn lost but leads 43-17 and 9-6 at MSSU. The loss will snap a streak of four straight regular-season sweeps over the Lions.
• Washburn used its sixth different starting lineup combination as Michael Williams, Grant Hargett and Andrew Meile started at guard and Paul Byers and Kyle Snyder started at forward.
• Washburn was out-rebounded for the first time in the last six games. MSSU held a 36-34 advantage on rebounds as an opponent out-rebounded WU for the seventh time.
• Phifer tied his season-high with three blocks. With 27 this year he moved into 10th in the WU single-season records, tied with Travis Robbins.
• Phifer has now reached double figures in all four games off the bench and he’s averaging 16.5 a game when he’s not in the starting lineup.
• The Washburn bench scored 38 points while the startes scored 19.