The Washburn Ichabods fell in a rematch of the 2018 MIAA Tournament Championship game in an 82-53 loss to No. 1-ranked Northwest Missouri. The Ichabods will discover the NCAA postseason opponents at Sunday night’s NCAA Selection show which will be streamed on the NCAA.com website. Check back to wupsorts.com for details later tonight.

The Ichabods (24-7), who were making their 12th MIAA Tournament Championship game appearance, jumped out to an early 3-0 lead on a 3-pointer by Javion Blake who would go on to lead the Ichabods in scoring with 17 points hitting five shots from behind the arc. Washburn would also lead at 5-4 and 7-4 after back to back layups by David Salach and Tyler Geiman.

Will McKee knotted the score at 9-9 in the first half. With back to back scores by McKee on a dunk and Salach on his sixth-point of the first half bring the Ichabods within three at 24-21 with 7:15 to play in the opening stanza, the Bearcats (32-0) would close the frame on a 15-2 run over the next 6:22 of the half building a 32-23 lead before a dunk before the half by Jace Williams cut the difference to 14 at 39-25.

In the second half, the Ichabods cut the lead to 12 with 17:27 to play on a Salach and another 3-pointer by Blake but a 13-0 burst by the Bearcats pushed the lead to 25 and Washburn did not get within 19 the remainder of the game.

Behind Blake’s 17 points, Devyn Wilsons cored 10 hitting a pair of 3-pointers as the only two Ichabods in double figures. Geiman had a team-high six rebounds and had four assists. Both Blake and Geiman were named to the MIAA All-Tournament team.

Trevor Hudgins led the Bearcats with a game-high 27 points and Joey Witthus had 25.

Washburn was 21 of 50 from the field hitting seven of 23 3-pointers and was outrebounded 33 to 27 in the game. The Bearcats were 29 of 57 form the field going 14 of 29 on 3-pointers and scored 12 points off 12 Ichabod turnovers.