Washburn holds off CMSU to stay unbeaten

Jan. 3, 2004

Box Score

TOPEKA- The No. 5 Washburn Lady Blues held off Central Missouri State 71-61 in Lee Arena in their MIAA home opener Saturday night.

After missing their first 10 shots to fall behind 7-0, the Lady Blues responded by taking a 22-15 lead with 8:41 left in the opening half on Montoya Whitfield's 3-pointer.

Whitfield helped Washburn overcome a slow start by scoring 15 of her career-high 20 points in the opening half.

Ashley Millham's 3-pointer with 13:06 left gave Central Missouri its first lead since early in the game at 42-40. Washburn outscored the Jennies 31-19 the rest of the way.

Lora Westling added 15 to help Washburn improve to 11-0 and 2-0 in the MIAA, while Bethany Orendorff had 19 points to pace the Jennies. Central fell to 8-3 and 1-1 in MIAA play.

The Lady Blues are back in action 5:30 Wednesday night againt arch rival No. 12 Emporia State University in Lee Arena. The two squads are just two of seven unbeaten teams in NCAA Division II women's basketball.