Lady Blues hold off feisty Griffons
Jan. 25, 2006
ST. JOSEPH, Mo. - The No. 1 ranked Washburn Lady Blues completed the first half of the MIAA season with a perfect 8-0 record lifting its overall record to 19-0 in a 74-66 win over Missouri Western. The Lady Blues will return home after their two-game road trip to play host to Truman at 5:30 p.m. Not the 1:30 p.m. printed time on the basketball tickets.
The Lady Blues trailed at 2-0 before building a 19-8 lead with 11:23 remaining in the opening stanza. Washburn shot 52 percent in the first half hitting 15 of 29 shots in the half including 4 of 7 from 3-point range. Washburn held the Griffons to 35 percent shooting limiting Western to 11 of 31 from the field. Washburn led the rest of the half in the first half taking a 37-24 lead into the break.
In the second half, Washburn pushed its lead to 14 at 38-24, before the Griffons rallied to cut the score down to six at 57-51 with seven minutes remaining. After a layup by Megan Sullivan off a Jennifer Harris assist. Washburn was up by 11 after Harris converted a three-point play. Washburn was up by 10 with :56 seconds remaining, but hit 2 of 6 free throws over a :19 second period as Western would get with six at 70-64 with :26 remaining. Washburn was fouled again and April Roadhouse and Sullivan each hit a pair of free throws increasing the lead to 10 before Western would hit a lay up as time expired.
Harris led Washburn with 33 points in 39 minutes. She was 13 of 26 from the field for the game. Brooke Ubelaker scored 17 points and recorded 10 rebounds for her first Washburn double double. She also had a career-high six assists. Sullivan finished with 13 points and eight rebounds. Jill Johnson led Western with 17 points and 10 rebounds.
Notes:
* The win was the Lady Blues' 38th straight overall dating back to last season and the eighth straight over the Griffons in the series.
* For the game, the Lady Blues shot 27 of 55 from the field for a 49 percent average. Western improved their shooting up to 49 percent in the second half finishing 28 of 66 from the field for a 42 percent average.
* Washburn had only two bench points coming from Amanda Holmes as the bench was 1 of 4 from the field. Western only scored two points from its bench as they were 1 of 9 from the field.
* Jennifer Harris lifted her season point total to 400. She's averaging 21.1 points a game this season. For her Washburn career, she has 917 points averaging 16.1 for her career.
* The Lady Blues won its 29th consecutive regular season game. The Washburn school record is 32.
* Megan Sullivan has one more rebound (136) this season, than she did all of last season (135).
* April Roadhouse lifted her career assist total to 353 and steal total to 159 against Western. Her 2,654 minutes played is two shy of moving into seventh place on the career minute chart.