The Griffons will look for their first road MIAA victory of the season on Saturday evening in Topeka, Kan. The Griffons fell in their last MIAA road game on Saturday against the 10th ranked Fort Hays State Tigers by a score of 66-53. Western is 6-4 overall and 1-3 in MIAA play. They are 1-2 on the road this season with their lone victory coming against St. Mary's (Texas) by a score of 77-76 on November 26, 2011. The Ichabods come into the game with a 7-3 overall record and 2-1 in MIAA play. The Ichabods are 3-0 at home and 1-0 at home in conference action picking up a 67-54 victory last Saturday against the Truman State Bulldogs. The Bulldogs other two home victories came against Peru State by a score of 97-72 and against Newman by a score of 88-63.
Missouri Western has three players averaging in double figures to date: senior forward
Lavonte Douglas (12.5 ppg), senior guard
TJ Johnson (13.4 ppg), and junior guard
James Harris (13.6 ppg). Douglas is first the team in rebounds averaging 7.4 boards per game. He is also shooting at a 48.5 percent clip (50-of-103). Harris has connected on 19 three-pointers on the season for a 40.3 percentage (19-for-47). As a team, MWSU is averaging 67.1 points per game and is shooting 43.0 percent from the field (249-for-579). The Griffons are shooting 36.8 percent from 3-point range (56-for-152). Western is 1-2 when playing without
TJ Johnson this season losing to Emporia State and Fort Hays State while defeating Missouri Southern.
Saturday's meeting will be the 80th meeting between the two schools with Washburn leading the series 45-34. The Griffons are 19-21 against WU in MIAA games. The Griffons have won the last four games played in St. Joseph, not losing since a 77-62 victory on Jan. 27, 2007. In the MIAA Tournament the Griffons are 4-3 against the Ichabods. Missouri Western tied the series with WU at 4-4 in overtime games with the win in Topeka two seasons ago.The Griffons trail the series 10-23 in Topeka but did pick up a big victory two years ago in overtime over the Ichabods. Western has won three of the last four regular season meetings with the Ichabods.
Head Coach
Tom Smith is 27-24 all-time against the Ichabods while Washburn had coach Bob Chipman is 38-29 all-time against the Griffons. Coach Smith is 14-8 all time in the fieldhouse against the Ichabods and just 9-14 in Lee Arena. The two teams have met seven times in the MIAA Tournament with the Griffons leading 4-3.
The Griffons have only lost 13 games all-time when holding an opponent to under 60 points. Under head coach
Tom Smith they have only lost two games holding an opponent under 60 points. Western's first loss under Smith was against Northwest Missouri State on January 5, 2005 by a score of 58-54 in Maryville. The last loss was last Saturday when they fell 59-57 at home against Emporia. This marks just the seventh home game they have lost when giving up under 60 points. The first ever loss was in 1975-76 when they fell 53-52 at Missouri Southern.
If you can't make it to the game you can watch live stats at WU live stats link:
http://www.sidearmstats.com/washburn/mbball/index.htm. You can listen to the game at
http://www.gogriffons.com/webcast.asp and you can watch the game at
www.b2livetv.com/partner_members.asp?id=289 for a minimal cost.
