Ichabods Bounce Back Strong Against Lions

The Washburn Ichabods returned to their winning ways with an 84-77 win over the Lindenwood Lions in their last trip to Lee Arena as an MIAA school on Saturday afternoon. Washburn moves to 15-5 overall and 8-3 in the conference while the Lions drop to 11-12 and 4-7 in the league race. The Ichabods are back in action at Central Missouri on Feb. 6 at Central Missouri.

With the Ichabods leading by three at the break at 35-32, Lindenwood cut the to one at 37-36,  Washburn used an 11-1 run to build the lead to 48-37 with 16:37 to go in the game. The Lions used an 8-0 run of their own to trim the margin back to four at 51-47 before back-to-back buckets by David Salach on a 3-pointer and a jumper pushed the difference back to eight.

The teams traded layup and the Lions would cut the Ichabod lead to three at 80-77 with 1:27 to play hitting five straight free throws, however the Ichabods hit four of their final free throws sealing the win.

Sevon Witt came off the bench to score a career-high 21 points recording his first double double as an Ichabod adding 11 rebounds (six offensive) with three blocks and four steals – all career-highs. He scored 14 points in the second half and went 7 of 11 from the field and hit 7 of 10 free throws in 22 minutes of work. Javion Blake scored 19 points with three assists and David Salach scored 15 with seven boards. Jalen Lewis scored 12 off the bench and Tyler Geiman had six points with five assists.

Lindenwood was led by Chandler Diekvoss’ 23 points and nine rebounds.

After shooting 43 percent in the first half the Ichabods improved to 51 percent in the second half to finish at 48 percent overall hitting 31 of 65 shots. The Lions shot 50 percent in the game connecting on 26 of 52 attempts.

The Ichabods outscored the Lions 47 to 38 in the paint and 38 to 23 in bench points. The Ichabods were outrebounded 33 to 31 in the game, but turned 10 offensive rebounds into 15 second chance points compared to seven for the Lions. Washburn also forced Lindenwood into 17 turnovers in the game. The teams were also whistled for a combined 37 fouls (20 for the Ichabods) in the game as Washburn finished 14 of 18 from the free throw line and the Lions were 19 of 24