The Washburn men’s basketball team lost a close game to the Missouri Southern Lions 95-103 as both teams put on an offensive display. Washburn entered the game 12-8, with an 8-7 record in the MIAA, while Missouri Southern started the game 13-9 overall, 11-6 in the conference.

The Bods are on a three-game slide, all coming from close, tough losses. One was a triple overtime thriller, another with a rival and finally against Missouri Southern, who boasted one of the premier players in the league who shot a perfect game.

Bob Chipman, the Ichabod’s head coach, was proud of the way the team fought back after multiple 12-point differences to tie the game up late in the second half before falling to a 12-point deficit in the end.

The highlights for Washburn were threefold. Brady Skeens had 22 rebounds and 20 points, shooting seven of 11 from the field. Next was Randall Smith with 16 assists, setting his team up all over the court, and lastly was Javion Blake with a run of three 3-pointers in the second half, making six of 10 from beyond the arc and scoring 22 by the end of the night.

“Brady, how about those rebounds,” Chipman said. “Randall, how about those assists. Javion, that run of threes, and we’re talking about two sophomores and a freshman.”

On the other side of the court, Missouri Southern’s star Taevaunn Prince literally did not miss. Hitting all 10 shots from the field and shooting a perfect 10 of 10 from the charity stripe as well, finishing with 32 points and six assists.

“Tonight I was really proud of the guys,” Chipman said. “It’s the way we’ve been playing all year. It’s a young group, our first time through the league. We get down, we don’t quit, we come back, and we’ve been winning more than our share up until this week.”

Chipman said they needed to work on defense and being more physical without bringing the referees into the game.

“Tonight I love the way the game was called,” Chipman said. “It’s supposed to be freedom of movement and it wasn’t a physical knock down, drag out game. We’ve been working on the physical part because the officials have reverted back to the old rules so we need to work on the physical stuff, the block out, the rebounding, the defense. I mean we gave up 103.”

The game was not close to start as the Lions took off on an offensive clinic for the first half, but Washburn stepped up to the challenge and worked back throughout the second half. With seven minutes remaining the game was tied for the first time since the start at 74. They fell after Prince took off in the second half taking and making his 10 free throws on the night.