Beat me once, shame on you. Beat me twice…well that just isn’t going to happen. The Washburn Lady Blues sought out revenge after the Central Missouri Jennies defeated Washburn by one point in Lee Arena. It was only the second loss in conference play for the Blues.

    With only a one point lead and under two minutes left go go in the game, junior forward Dana Elliot drained a wide open three to make it a two possession game with 1:37 on the clock.

    “I just shot it and it just happened to go in,” said Elliot.

    The Jennies answered going to their senior forward Nicole Caddell who finished with a layup to cut the lead back down to two. Washburn senior guard Ebonie Williams missed a jumper on the next possession but 6-foot-3 senior center Cassie Lombardino snagged the rebound. Elliot misses the jumper with 15 seconds left. Central Missouri snatched the rebound and called a timeout with 14 seconds left to go.

    The Jennies went back to Caddell who couldn’t finish the contested lay up. Central Misouri guard Saraethea Brown rebound the Caddell miss and passed out to a wide open Taylor Hanson for the three. Hanson’s trey bounces off the rim as time expires.

    “I’m not sure that I watched it. We were fortunate that it didn’t fall,” said Washburn women’s head basketball coach Ron McHenry.

    For most of the game it was a dogfight. With 11:16 left in the first half Central Missouri pushed their lead to seven off of a 11-2 run. Senior guard Stevi Schultz knocked down a big three pointer to tie the game up at 24 with 8:26 left in the first period. The Blues and Jennies tied six times and changed leads ten times in the first half.

    After a Caddell jumper to put up the Jennies by one, Williams hits a trey to take a 36-34 lead into the locker room.

    “The first half they really beat us on the boards,” said McHenry. “Talent wise I feel they are as talented as any team out there.”

    Washburn was without starting forward and leading rebound Sierra Moeller who suffered an injury in their previous game.

    “We’re definitely missing her on the boards,” said Elliot.

    Elliot stepped in and started for the injured Moeller and produced for the Lady Blues. She finished with seven points and seven rebounds. Lombardino had another big game scoring 19 and giving the Jennie big women fits by the basket.

    “I figure I might as well take it to them early,” said Lombardino.

    Despite balanced scoring from Central Missouri’s big three Washburn walked away with the 64-62 hard earned win.

    “Those are tough match ups with really good basketball players said,” said McHenry. “Tpretty good knock down drag out game.”

    Washburn won when it mattered advancing to the MIAA finals. The Lady Blues look to win the tournament title to go with their regular season title at 1 pm today.