It’s offi cial: the Lady Blues still know how to play at home.

Washburn rolled over the Truman State Bulldogs 83-60 Saturday in its second home game since Nov. 26.

“It feels great,” said Amanda Holmes, senior forward. “It’s always nice to come home. It’s a different fl ow than when you’re on the road, where you face so much adversity. It’s nice to come home and just play comfortable.”

The Lady Blues jumped out to a 15-0 start to the fi rst half and the fi rst Bulldog basket didn’t come until the 14:08 mark. The basket, however, spurred an 11-0 Bulldog run to pull the score within four.

“To me that’s just the game of basketball,” said Holmes. “You’re going to have your runs and they are going to have theirs. We didn’t stop the ball as well as we should have but we came back and played well the rest of the game.”

Lady Blue senior forward Corkey Stiger responded to the drought, scoring 11 straight. Stiger ended the fi rst half with 17 points, going 5-6 from the fi eld. “Corkey at times can really get it going,” said Ron McHenry, Washburn head coach. “She’s a great scorer. We need to get other kids scoring though.”

The Lady Blues’ fi rst-half surge allowed them to spread out the offensive production in the second half. Stiger had just one bucket from the fi eld in the second half as the Lady Blues turned to the post, having Holmes score fi ve and junior center Regiane Araujo with nine. The Lady Blues had 10 different players score in the second half.

“We have to get a little bit more consistent with our offense,” said McHenry.

The Lady Blues will continue the theme of winter break as they take to the road again to Bolivar, Mo., to play the Southwest Baptist Bearcats. The Bearcats (12-2, 4-1) have been tough at home, winning all eight of their contests including a 76-73 upset Jan. 5 over then- No. 13 Emporia State.

“Baptist is playing well and they do some things differently, including switch on screens and double the post, which we struggled with against Northwest,” said McHenry. “Those are some things we’re going to have to handle down at their place. But if you can get a win at their place, you’ve done something good.”

The Bearcats offense is driven by senior guard Erika Souza, who averages 24.2 points per game and ranks third in the conference in scoring. With junior guards Courtney Shewmaker and Courtney Creed adding 12 a night, the Bearcats lead the MIAA in scoring offense with 83.9 points a game.

“Most of their kids are perimeter shooters or perimeter drivers,” said McHenry. “So you just challenge your kids to work hard on getting through screens. Offensively, we have to be more effi cient because they can score.”

The Bearcats’ lone conference loss came to Northwest Missouri 101-97, a team the Lady Blues also fell to 50-45. The other Bearcat loss was to Central Oklahoma 79-72 in the second game of the season, a team the Lady Blues beat in the Cruzin Classic 66-56 Dec. 20.

“It’s a diffi cult place to go in and win,” said Holmes. “We just have to come prepared and ready to go. I have so much faith in my teammates and coaches. I think we can beat anybody we step on the fl oor with.”