It was a bounce back game for the Washburn men’s basketball team as they looked to get back to their winning ways after dropping a game to Northwest Missouri State over the weekend. They hosted the Lopers of Nebraska-Kearney on Wednesday night and controlled the game from start to finish.

After a bit of a slow start offensively that also saw sophomore forward Will McKee pick up two quick fouls, the offense finally got going. McKee’s replacement, freshman forward Sevon Witt scored in transition twice partnered with two foul shots and the Ichabods led early 6-1. The defensive effort put forth by Washburn allowed them to play freely on the offensive end as they saw their lead grow to 16-5 early on.

Paced by Witt the Ichabod lead grew to 24-9 with under six minutes to play in the first half. The duo of Witt and senior guard Tyas Martin continued to dominate on the offensive end as Witt led all scorers at the half with 12. Not far behind was Martin with 8. The Ichabods took a 16-point lead into the halftime locker room at 34-18.

The Lopers came out firing from three-point land to start the second half, hitting their first three attempts to help trim the lead to 11.

That hope was short lived however as Witt, Martin, and McKee among others went to work on the glass and got the offense out in transition and were able to stretch the lead by scoring in transition, draw fouls, and hitting free throws. With around eight minutes to go and Washburn leading by 18, they put their offense into another gear with a barrage of three’s and dunks to push the lead out to 30 and completely slam the door on the Lopers leaving no doubt.

The Ichabods were able to get some late substitutes in and finish the game with a final score of 89-58.

Witt finished with a game high of 23 points. Also scoring in double figures were Martin with 16, senior forward David Salach with 13, and freshman guard Jalen Lewis with 10.

The most impressive stat line of the night however belongs to sophomore guard Tyler Geiman. Geiman was a rebound shy of a double-double, but only scored two points. He finished with 16 assists, one shy of tying the school record, and nine rebounds.

Geiman said, “We have scorers everywhere so it’s pretty easy [to pile up assists] when you have weapons like that around.”

The Ichabods bounced back in a big way after dropping their first conference game of the year on Saturday to Northwest Missouri State.

Witt said, “After that loss we all got together, no one went off on their own and started blaming each other, it was just about coming together and going out and getting them the next time.”

Neither Geiman nor Witt realized that Geiman was one rebound away from such an unusual double-double when late in the game Witt essentially stole a rebound away from Geiman and both were soon later subbed out for the night.

Witt later said, “I didn’t even know that, now I’m upset. That’s my fault, Ty.”

Washburn will be back in action on Saturday in Lee Arena hosting Fort Hays State at 3 p.m.