Washburn basketball swept the Turnpike Tussle at White Auditorium in Emporia on Thursday night.
In the women’s game, the Lady Hornets couldn’t overcome a nine-minute first-half drought in a 63-52 loss to Washburn. The teams ping-ponged the lead back and forth early, but the Lady Hornets went cold and didn’t score in the final five minutes of the first quarter and the first four minutes of the second quarter as Washburn went on a slow 9-0 run and the Lady Hornets never led again. ESU was outscored in second-chance points 15-5 and were outrebounded by nine in the game. ESU shot just 32% from the field in the game and head coach MJ Baker said they simply didn’t shoot well enough to win.
ESU (8-8, 2-5 MIAA) was led by Kaitlyn Sanders 12 points. It was the fifth-straight win in the series for Washburn.
In the men’s game, the Hornets battled but #1 Washburn scored the final seven points of the game to survive with a 75-64 win over the Hornets and move their record to 17-0 on the season. The teams knotted the score four times in the first moments of the game but the Hornets never led. The Ichabods never had a double-digit lead until hitting a pair of free throws with 17 seconds to go. For head coach Tom Billeter, it was another game that slipped away.
Andrew Pengel led the Hornets with 15 points. ESU (5-10, 1-6 MIAA) returns to action Saturday hosting Central Missouri. Coverage begins at 1:00 p.m. on Mix 104.9.
