By TOMMY REZAC
St. Joseph Post
The Missouri Western women's basketball team used a strong second half effort to pull away from Washburn in a 67-47 win over the Ichabods on Wednesday night at the MWSU Fieldhouse.
Both teams were limited offensively in the first half, as the Griffons led 23-17 at halftime. Missouri Western (19-5, 13-3 MIAA) settled in during the second half, scoring 44 points over the final two quarters combined, including 26 in the fourth.
"I just thought we really settled in and were much better the second half," Missouri Western coach Candi Whitaker said. "I thought Johnni (Gonzalez) was a big key to that. She did a fantastic job of finding shooters, making decisions and getting us into a much better offense the second half."
Defensively, the Griffons forced 22 turnovers and held Washburn to just 34 percent shooting from the field, including 3-of-11 from three.
Missouri Western's Brionna Budgets led the way with a game-high 29 points. The effort was enough to put her over 1,000 points in her Griffon career.
"It felt really good," Budgets said. "Just getting back into the flow of things. We had kind of been sick the last couple of days. Everyone was just playing strong, fighting through it, and staying true to ourselves."
Junior Connie Clarke was equally impressive with 17 points and 16 rebounds - her 10th double-double of the season. Clarke also logged a team-best six steals.
Whitaker says Clarke and Budgets were equally important in the winning effort Wednesday.
"I thought (Connie) was really good the entire game," Whitaker said. "And then Bri got hot and is starting to play like we know Bri can. She really found her rhythm, and she played really hard defensively. When Bri plays hard defensively, I feel like we're going to win."
The win put Missouri Western back in the win column after the Griffons absorbed a 91-55 loss at No. 13 Nebraska-Kearney on Saturday - a loss that snapped an 11-game winning streak.
"We were rough at times but I thought our effort was good," Whitaker said. "I thought we battled. I saw a lot of people being physical. Did a lot of good things. Just looking forward to continuing to get better and coaching this group."
Griffon men outlast Washburn in OT, snap losing streak
The Missouri Western men weathered a series of runs from Washburn Wednesday, and were able to go on a critical run of their own when they needed it most.
The Griffons, down 65-55 with three minutes left in regulation, went on a 14-4 run to force overtime. Down 80-79 with 11 seconds left, Missouri Western snatched one from the jaws of defeat Wednesday, as JaRon Thames' layup with 2.5 seconds remaining lifted the Griffons to an 81-80 overtime win over the Ichabods at the MWSU Fieldhouse.
The victory snaps what was a six-game losing streak for the Griffons, and ended a five-game winning streak for Washburn.
"They just continue to fight and continue to believe," Missouri Western coach Will Martin said. "This is a really good Washburn team. We took, we say a full 40 minutes, but it took an extra five minutes. The guys just fought. They fought hard and these kids earned this one."
After getting down 17-7 in the opening eight minutes, Missouri Western (9-12, 5-10 MIAA) responded and ended up leading 34-30 at halftime.
Washburn (10-10, 7-7 MIAA) opened the second half on an 8-0 run to retake the lead, but once again the Griffons weathered the storm and hung in for much of the second half.
Suddenly, the Griffons were down 63-53 with 3:47 to play. After critical buckets from Thames, Will Eames, Julius Dixon and Taye Fields, Missouri Western led 69-68 with 48 seconds left in regulation before Washburn tied the game again at the free throw line.
Washburn took its first lead of the OT period with 11 seconds left, thanks to an Andrew Orr layup, but Thames took the ball up the floor the other way and hit the go-ahead shot off the glass with just 2.5 to go.
Washburn called their last timeout and were able to get the ball across midcourt, but a shot in the lane from Jarmell Johnson missed short, preserving victory for the Griffons.
Thames came off the bench Wednesday and scored 21 points on 9-of-10 shooting. Julius Dixon finished with a career-high 19 points. Eames, who had missed the previous seven games with a hand injury, had an outstanding return with 12 points and eight rebounds.
"It was so fun being out there," Eames said. "There's no pressure on me out there. I feel like I could go be myself. My team has my back. They lived with my mistakes early on, but when it was overtime, it felt like I had been playing all year."
Fields was key especially down the stretch with 11 points, nine rebounds and five assists.
Missouri Western is back in the win column and certainly more dynamic with a healthy Will Eames back in the fold. With seven games left, the Griffons are not only in contention to make the MIAA tournament, but to overall have a strong finish to their 2022-23 campaign.
"You can turn this into momentum, but it's not momentum yet," Martin said. "It feels like momentum after all that we've been through, but if you have two good days of practice and can get it done against Emporia, that's two (in a row) and you're one day at a time and one game at a time."
Both Missouri Western teams stay home Saturday to host Emporia State. The women's game starts at 1:30, and the men's will follow at 3:30. Both games are on KFEQ Radio (680, 95.3, 680kfeq.com).
You can follow Tommy on Twitter @TommyKFEQ and St. Joseph Post @StJosephPost.