No. 2 Lady Blues begin own version of road warriors as stretch of 7 of final 10 games on the road . . .
The No. 2 ranked Washburn Lady Blues (16-1, 7-1 MIAA) look for their 12th straight win as they travel to Joplin, Mo., on Wednesday to take on Missouri Southern. The game begins a stretch where the Lady Blues will play 7 of their final 10 regular games on the road. The Lions were the last MIAA team to beat the Lady Blues on the road - 732 days ago - on Jan. 22, 2005 in a 53-50 win. Since then, Washburn has won their last 15 conference games away from Lee Arena. Washburn topped Pittsburg State last time out 84-55 on Saturday and the Lions (10-6, 3-5 MIAA) after falling to Southwest Baptist on Monday night in a make up game from a game originally scheduled Jan. 13.

Lady Blues on radio . . .
Lady Blues games will be broadcast on KTPK 106.9 FM with former Washburn quarterback Mark Elliott calling all the action with Bruce Steinbrock providing color commentary. The games will also be streamed live online at http://images.radcity.net/5089/1635475.asx.

The coaches . . .
Washburn head coach Ron McHenry has posted a 175-34 (.835) record overall and 90-24 (.782) record in the MIAA with four consecutive MIAA regular season championships and the 2005 NCAA National Championship. He was named the Lady Blues head coach prior to the 2000-01 season. He is third among active women's NCAA Division II coaches in winning percentage and has the 10th most wins in MIAA history. McHenry was named the MIAA’s Coach of the Year in 2005 and in 2006 and the Division II Bulletin National Coach of the Year in 2005. (complete bio on page 2 of notes.)
Missouri Southern head coach Maryann Mitts is in the 11th year of her collegiate head coaching career with a 177-121 (.695) record. She’s in her sixth year as head coach of the Lions, with whom she holds a 94-64 mark (.607). She is a combined 3-17 against the Washburn. She is 2-8 against the Lady Blues at Missouri Southern and 1-9 against the Lady Blues while at her alma mater Rockhurst. All three of her wins against Washburn have been away from Lee Arena.

Last time out for the Lady Blues . . .
No. 2 Lady Blues win 11th straight overall, 12th in a row over Gorillas
The No. 2 Washburn Lady Blues won their 11th straight game in a row and their 12th straight over Pittsburg State in an 84-55 win over the Gorillas. With the win the Lady Blues improved to 16-1 and 7-1 in the MIAA while the Gorillas fell to 7-9 and 2-6 in conference play. The Lady Blues will be in action on Wednesday, Jan. 24 at 5:30 p.m. in Joplin, Mo.
The Lady Blues held the Gorillas to 38 percent shooting in the first half while Washburn was 15 of 33 from the field for a 46 percent average as they took a 36-27 lead into the locker room at the break. Washburn led by as many as 14 in the first half.
In the second half, Washburn had their lead cut to seven at 43-36, but following a pair of jumpers by Amanda Holmes and Corkey Stiger and a 3-pointer by Brooke Ubelaker, Washburn pushed their lead to 12 and never looked back in the 29-point win.
Washburn was led by Ubelaker who scored a game-high and season-high 21 points on 7 of 13 shooting. Stiger scored 13 with Cindy Keeley scoring 11 and Jessica Aebi put in 10.
Candice Gilbert led the Gorillas with 15 points adding a double double with 10 rebounds.
Washburn shot 50 percent for the game hitting 17 of 31 shots in the second half while holding the Gorillas to 30 percent in the second half and 33 percent for the game (18 of 54).

Washburn/Missouri Southern series notes . . .
Washburn is 35-23 all-time against the Lions. Washburn has won the last three meetings, 9 of 11 and 13 of the last 16 meetings. All three losses have come in Joplin. Washburn has won 10 straight in Topeka. The Lady Blues are 6-4 in the last 10 games in Joplin.

Last Meeting with the Lions . . .
(Feb. 4, 2006) TOPEKA - The No. 1 Washburn needed an extra five minutes of playing time to put away Missouri Southern as the Lady Blues topped the Lions 66-64 in overtime in Lee Arena. With the win, Washburn improved to 22-0 and 11-0 in the MIAA.
The Lady Blues opened the game cold as did the Lions with both teams combining for 15 field goals as Washburn was 7 of 31 from the field and the Lions were 8 of 25 from the field. The Lady Blues did not hit their first field goal of the game until the 12:42 mark of the game on a 3-pointer by Jessica Aebi, which cut the Lions lead to 8-7. Both teams had leads as many as six in the first half as the Lady Blues took a 26-24 lead into the break.
In the second half, Washburn still was struggling from the field hitting 11 of 30 from the field, but they were 0 of 12 from 3-point land, and the Lions hit none of their five attempts, but still shot 56 percent from the field. Washburn held a second half lead of nine at 52-43 with 7:02 remaining, but Southern rallied to cut the lead to one at 55-54 on a Darcie Reutlinger free throw. Jennifer Harris hit 1 of 2 free throws to give Washburn a 56-54 lead, but Nicole Greninger hit a jumper in the lane to knot the score with 1 second remaining.
In the overtime, Jennifer Harris’ 3-pointer with 4:26 remaining gave Washburn a 59-58 lead. With the 3, Harris went over the 1,000 point mark for her career. After another Harris jumper, Washburn led 61-58, but Southern came back and tied it at 61 on a 3-pointer by Marina Caran with 3:33 remaining.
Southern took the lead at 62-61 on a Dana-Mae Robbs free throw with 2:53 remaining, but on the next possession, Brooke Ubelaker hit a baseline jumper to put the Lady Blues up 63-62 with 2:27 left.
Robbs hit a pair of free throws to give the Lions a 64-63 lead with 2:03 left, but it would be their last lead as Harris hit a jumper in the lane with 29 seconds remaining to push Washburn to a 65-64 advantage. Southern’s Robbs missed a jumper and collected the rebound, but Cindy Keeley picked up a steal and hit her first free throw with 5 seconds left and Megan Sullivan grabbed the carom on the second and Washburn ran out the clock.
Harris led Washburn with 28 points - seven coming in the overtime period and 13 in the second half - pushing her career total to 1,007, becoming only the second two-year transfer in Washburn history to go over the 1,000 point mark. She is the 19th overall to accomplish the feat and the second this season behind Ubelaker who went over 1,000 points in Las Vegas.
Sullivan had her second career Washburn double double with 12 points and a career-high 14 rebounds. Ubelaker had 13 points.
Robbs led Southern with 25 points collecting a double double of her own with 13 rebounds.
Washburn shot a season-low 32 percent for the game. There were 10 lead changes and five ties in the game.

About the Missouri Southern Lions . . .
Missouri Southern enters the game with an overall record of 10-6, 3-5 in the MIAA. Last time out on Monday, Missouri Southern fell to Southwest Baptist 80-75 in Bolivar, Mo., in a rescheduled game from Jan. 13.
Missouri Southern finished the 2005-06 season with an overall record of 16-12 and tied for fourth in the MIAA with an 8-8 record. The Lions return only three letterwinners to this year’s team including just one starter. Robin Kantin leads MSSU in scoring averaging 14.0 points per game, which is ninth in the conference. Dana-Mae Robbs is second on the team in scoring with 13.7 points per game, which tenth-best in the MIAA. Robbs is also fourth in the conference and the Lions leader in rebounds per game with 7.9. The team leader in assists per game is Karina Kuczynski with 5.07, which ranks second in the MIAA.

Last time out for Missouri Southern . . .
(Jan. 23) Bolivar, Mo. - Senior Dana-Mae Robbs (Lecompton, Kan.) returned from a two-game absence with a broken hand to tie her season-high of 23 points on 8-of-13 shooting from the field, but it wasn’t enough as the Missouri Southern Lions dropped their fourth straight, 80-75 to the Southwest Baptist Lady Bearcats Monday night (Jan. 22) in a make-up game of a scheduled Jan. 13 contest that was postponed due to a winter storm.
The Lions had a chance late when Robbs hit a layup on an assist from Robin Kantin (Silver Spring, Md.) that pulled Southern to within three at 78-75 with 52 seconds left and the Lady Bearcats missed three of their next four free throws to allow the Lions to hang within four at 79-75.
But the Lions failed to take advantage as three-point attempts from Kantin and Ela Zawadka were off the mark in the final 15 seconds of the contest.
The first half was a back-and-forth affair as the Lady Bearcats jumped out to an early 7-2 lead, only to have the Lions score the next nine points that saw four different Lions find the scoreboard during that span.
SBU responded with a 7-0 spurt of their own and led 14-11 after a layup from Rachel Graves with 12:09 left in the first half.
The remainder of the opening half saw seven ties and with the Lady Bearcats leading 34-33, Cortney Shewmaker nailed a trey as the first half ended to give SBU a 37-33 advantage at the half.
SBU extended the lead to seven at 43-36 early in the second half on the strength of two buckets from Livia Brito, but the Lions responded with a 10-3 spurt and tied it at 46-46 after Robbs split a pair at the free throw line with 13:32 left.
The Lady Bearcats gained their biggest lead of the night with an 8-0 run that featured a three-pointer from Shewmaker to lead 65-56 with 8:16 left after the Lions had cut the SBU lead down to just one.
SBU would lead by nine once more before the Lions began their late rally that fell just short.
Besides Robbs’ 23-point output, Kantin also reached double-figures for the Lions with 19 points to go along with a game-high 10 rebounds.
The Lady Bearcats placed four players in double-figures, led by Brito’s game-high of 25 and team-high seven boards. Shewmaker wound up with 13, while Courtney Creed and Amber Wheeler scored 10 points each.
Southern shot 45.5 percent (25-of-55) in the contest, but only 26.7 percent (4-of-15) from three-point range.
SBU shot a solid 53.7 percent (29-of-54) overall and a respectable 40 percent (6-of-15) from long-distance.
After being out-rebounded for only the second time all season against Fort Hays State on Saturday night (Jan. 20), the Lions regained their rebounding prowess by out-boarding the Lady Bearcats 35-28 and 13-6 on the offensive glass.
Turnovers plagued the Lions in the first half, as Southern committed 14 before halftime. But the Lions took much better care of the basketball in the second half, recording only four giveaways.

Lady Blues notes . . .
#3 – Cindy Keeley – Averaging 9.5 points and 4.1 rebounds per game in MIAA play
#4 – Amanda Holmes – Double figure scoring in 5 of last 6 games (13.7 ppg)
#10 – Jessica Aebi – 66 of 69 career rebounds are defensive
#11 – Renata Germano – 12 of 17 from free throw line in the last 5 minutes of games this season
#13 – Jessica Mainz – Career high 7 assists against Pitt State on Saturday
#15 – Nikki Holmes – At least 1 field goal in last seven games
#20 – Holly Henrichs – 4 of 4 from free throw line this season
#21 – Corkey Stiger – 30 minutes played against Pitt State was a season-high
#23 – Stephanie Wittman – Hit 1st 3-pointer of the season against Pitt State
#24 – Karla Tailele – Will redshirt this season with continuing knee problems
#25 – Megan Sullivan – 40 career blocked shots 18th in school history
#32 – Brooke Ubelaker – Needs 8 3-pointers for 200 for her career
#33 – Hope Gregory – Will redshirt this season straining previous injury

Lady Blues tip-ins. . .
• The Lady Blues have won 15 straight MIAA road games dating back to a Jan. 22, 2005 loss at Missouri Southern in a 53-50 setback.
• Senior Brooke Ubelaker has started all 118 games of her Washburn career and she has scored in double figures in 89 games … against Central Missouri, she became the sixth Lady Blue to record at least 1,500 points and 600 rebounds.
• Senior Cindy Keeley has played in 118 games at Washburn career and is 14th on the all-time 3-pointers made chart with 53 for her career.
• The Lady Blues bench has outscored their opponents bench this season 508-227.
• The Lady Blues have not allowed an opponent to shoot above 50 percent in a game in a streak of 56 contests - Angelo State was the last time to hit 50 percent of their shots in the first round of the NCAA Tournament in Springfield when they connected on 26 of 52 shots on March 12, 2005.
• The Lady Blues have not allowed an opponent to score 100 points in 236 straight games. The last foe to reach the century mark was on Jan. 27, 1999 when ESU scored 106 points in a 40-point win.
• The Lady Blues are 215-78 (.731) all-time in MIAA play.
• Washburn improved to 93-10 in games in Lee Arena under head coach Ron McHenry.
• The Lady Blues are shooting 48 percent from the field in the second half and 45 percent in the first half.
• In the first half, Washburn is 96 of 138 from the free throw line (.696) - in the second half they are 132 of 173 (.763).
• The Lady Blues are averaging 80.3 ppg in their six games away from Lee Arena while allowing 51.3 ppg.
• Brooke Ubelaker is averaging 16.2 ppg away from Lee Arena and hitting 57 percent of her 3-point attempts (21 of 37).
• Amanda Holmes is averaging 13.0 ppg and 8.6 rpg in MIAA play.
• The Lady Blues are +10.2 in rebounding per game and +20.7 ppg in MIAA play.

Lady Blues in Lee Arena . . .
In their 23rd season in Lee Arena, the Lady Blues are 285-55 (.836) overall at home. The longest winning streak was 44 games from Dec. 1, 1990 to March 20, 1993.
The Lady Blues were 15-0 in Lee Arena last season, out scoring opponents by a 78.2-49.9 average. The Lady Blues were 13-1 in Lee Arena in 2003-04, 16-1 in 2002-03 and 15-1 in 2001-02. The Lady Blues have won 30 straight regular season non-conference games in Lee Arena. The last defeat by a non-conference team in the regular season was to Missouri-St. Louis in a 59-51 setback on Dec. 30, 2000.
Washburn is 93-10 (.901) in home games under Ron McHenry.

Lady Blues history . . .
Washburn is 656-317 (.674 in 973 games) in its 38th season of intercollegiate action. Entering this season, the Lady Blues were 24th in Division II winning percentage and 18th in Division II wins.

Lady Blues in the national poll . . .
(Jan. 23, 2007): The Washburn Lady Blues remained No. 2 in the USA Today/ESPN/WBCA Coaches Poll that was released today. The Lady Blues have been ranked in 70 straight weeks of the national poll dating back to the 2002-03 season. The Lady Blues have been ranked in the top 25 after being ranked in each poll the last four seasons, plus the last 15 of the 2002-03 season entering the poll on Dec. 11, 2002. Washburn spent the entire 2005-06 season as the No. 1 ranked team in the land before falling in the NCAA South Central Regional finals to Emporia State.

up next . . .
The Lady Blues will travel to Missouri Western on Saturday, Jan. 27 to battle the No. 3 ranked Griffons. The Griffons handed the Lady Blues their only loss this season in a 74-68 setback in Lee Arena on Dec. 9. The Lady Blues will face the Lions again for the second time in eight days when the Lions travel to Lee Arena on Thursday, Feb. 1 at 5:30 p.m.