By TOMMY REZAC
St. Joseph Post
Connie Clarke scored a game-high 20 points to go with a career-high 17 rebounds, as the Missouri Western women's basketball team played lockdown defense and beat Washburn 67-44 Thursday at the MWSU Fieldhouse.
The Griffons (20-5, 14-5 MIAA) held Washburn to just 30 percent shooting (18-of-60) on the night, and Western outrebounded the Ichabods 48-32.
"Really great effort on the defensive side," Missouri Western coach Candi Whitaker said after reaching at least 20 wins for the second time in her three seasons with MWSU. "Was super happy with how locked in we were and committed to guarding. Had some great switches when we needed to. Hustled back when they had to transition. I mean, they had opportunities to score and we took it away with our hustle."
Leading 29-19 at halftime, Missouri Western used a 20-9 third quarter to take control and earn a season series sweep against Washburn (12-12, 10-8 MIAA).
Clarke was dominant throughout, as she shot 8-of-12 from the floor and secured her sixth double-double of the season. The Griffons have won back-to-back after losing back-to-back at Missouri Southern and at Pittsburg State last week.
"I feel like we came in and learned from our mistakes," Clarke said. "We executed our offense and played great defense. The game we just won, it was a personnel based game and we did great guarding."
Corbyn Cunningham had 10 points and seven rebounds for MWSU, while Jaelyn Haggard had nine points off the bench and Alyssa Bonilla scored eight. The Griffons had 20 assists and 29 bench points.
The Griffons will next take on Emporia State (12-12, 7-11 MIAA) at home Saturday after beating the Hornets 81-67 on the road Tuesday.
Washburn shoots 61 percent, pulls away late to beat Griffons
Forward Jonny Clausing made his first start of the year coming off injury, and dropped 24 points and 12 rebounds for Washburn (16-9, 13-6 MIAA), who beat Missouri Western 79-64 at the MWSU Fieldhouse Thursday.
Clausing, an honorable mention all-MIAA forward last season, led four Ichabods in double figures, as Washburn shot 61.2 percent (30-of-49) on the night and outscored the Griffons 44-16 in the paint.
"Washburn was in full control of the tempo," Missouri Western coach Will Martin said. "We tried to play at their pace instead of playing at our pace. Credit to (Washburn coach Brett) Ballard and his team. They did a phenomenal job. I thought our guys fought to stay in, but again, we didn't control the pace of the game and that's what it comes down to."
Missouri Western (12-14, 8-10 MIAA) fell behind 45-32 at halftime and trailed 53-34 with 16:31 remaining. The Griffons then reeled off a 7-0 run and only trailed 64-56 with 9:06 to go.
The Ichabods answered with a 13-3 run and led 77-59 with 3:27 remaining. The Griffons had a four-minute scoring drought in that time and were just 5-of-11 at the free throw line in the second half.
Will Eames led four Griffons in double figures with 16 points to go with five rebounds and five assists. Caleb Bennett had 14 points on 4-of-8 shooting from beyond the arc. Q Mays had 12 points and JaRon Thames 11.
Missouri Western made 12 threes in the loss and shot 40 percent (20-of-55) from the field.
All-American guard Tyler Geiman had 13 points and a game-high eight assists to go with four rebounds and three steals to help Washburn, who's now won four straight meetings against the Griffons and three straight games overall.
The Missouri Western men stay home to face Emporia State (18-6, 13-5 MIAA) on Saturday. The women lead off at 5, the men at 7.
The Hornets beat the Griffons in Emporia on Jan. 8, 76-64.
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