By looking at the Washburn half of the box score, one might not guess that the Lady Blues lost their second game of the season.

On Saturday night, the Lady Blues couldn’t complete a comeback in the second half and lost 87-83 to the University of Nebraska-Omaha. Washburn put up a good fight, shooting 52 percent from the floor, as opposed to the Mavericks’ 49 percent, and out-rebounded their opponents by 22.

“I thought we played well,” said Ron McHenry Washburn head coach. “I know we shot well, we just could not get a stop on the other guys.”

The Lady Blues had the lead 49-45 after the first half of play. The first half of the game consisted of each team scoring at will and tearing up the opposing defense. The second half would prove to be the difference maker as the Mavericks came out of the locker room with one thing on their mind: an upset.

The Lady Blues couldn’t keep up their 63 percent shooting from the first half and committed 14 turnovers in the second half. Washburn trailed by as many as 12 points, cutting the lead to six on numerous occasions. But the Mavericks never cooled off and held onto the lead and the win.

“We gave up a lot of points, which is definitely rare,” said McHenry.  “We just had too many turnovers.  UNO played well, but we caught the turnover bug.”

The Lady Blues were led by Cassie Lombardino with 23 points and Alyssa Mullen’s career high 22-point performance.

Washburn did get a win on Wednesday night against the Lincoln University, for their 18th win in a row over the Blue Tigers. Lombardino was also the high-scorer in the game for Washburn, with 17 points.

“I don’t think it was our prettiest game, not by a long shot,” said McHenry.  “But we got a win.  I would have loved to put more players into the game, but it doesn’t always work out that way.  We are focused on finishing our conference run on a high note, though.”

Washburn plays next on the road Wednesday Jan. 26 against the No. 23 Northwest Missouri State University Bearcats, who have the same overall record and the same conference record, and once again at home against the Truman State University Bulldogs on Saturday Jan. 29.

“I know Northwest is an awfully good team,” said McHenry.  “They have some really big kids, and they play at a very high level.  I’ve said this before, but the biggest challenge facing us is, ‘How do we learn to win on the road?'”