Women’s basketball remains undefeated after Thanksgiving Classic

Justin Villalona

Washburn kicked off Thanksgiving break with a win against St. Cloud State University on Nov. 24 at Lee Arena to improve to 5-0 on the season, the ending score being 58-55.

Reagan Phelan, sophomore, played a total of 38 minutes for the Ichabods, scored a total of 16 points and had one assist and three steals. Mackenzie Loe played a total of 21 minutes and had a total of ten points and two steals. Washburn struggled from behind the arc, going 1-21, only 4.8 percent, the entire game.

However, Washburn had 12 second chance points and 16 points off turnovers which helped them recover from the poor shooting performance. These shooting problems the Ichabods had aside, the team also had turnover problems, which totaled at 15 turnovers.

In fact, Washburn trailed the whole game until the fourth quarter where they finally lead by six with 1:37 remaining.

With the win against St. Cloud State University the Ichabods would then face off against Truman State University in the same tournament.

The Ichabods continued to struggle against Truman State. In the first quarter, Truman’s defense was proved too much for the powerful Ichabods as they only scored nine points, while Truman landed 13.

As the Ichabods slightly improved on the three point game, they struggled with foul trouble, accumulating 11 personal fouls in the first half of the game. The end of the first half the score ended up being 35-33 with Washburn leading.

Phelan scored a total of 15 points, two assists and one block the entire game against the Bulldogs.

The Ichabods faced their biggest struggles in the third quarter of the game. They only scored 10 points, went 4-13 for field goals, which is a staggering 30.8 percent and went 0-4 from behind the arc and 2-2 from the free throw line.

In the fourth quarter, the Ichabods had a great surge of energy on offense and defense. This game came down to the wire, as the Ichabods would not go down without a fight.

Taylor Blue, a junior guard, helped lift the Ichabods past the Bulldogs with her last second shot to win the game and keep Washburn undefeated on the season.

“I was feeling confident,” Blue said. “I always practice that fade away, all my coaches said do not fade away, but I knew it would come in handy one day.”

The final score ended up being 68-67 with Washburn securing the win in the final seconds.

One standout performance was Alexis McAfee, who played a strong game in the fourth. She had a total of 17 points and four rebounds.

Phelan, too, played a large part in Washburn’s victory. She had a season game high with a total of 22 points, two assists, one steal and one rebound.

“I felt we played really good in the second half coming off a win to get another win,” Phelan said. “We locked down when we needed to, and we finished strong.”