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Washburn Cruises to 80-60 Victory in Opener
By David Boyce
Early on, the Washburn women exposed a match-up problem that Southwest Baptist had no answer for.
The Lady Blues dumped the ball inside to either senior Dayna Rodriguez or sophomore Cassie Lombardino and they scored a few buckets almost uncontested.
The amazing part was Rodriguez didn't start because of an ankle injury and that forced Lombardino to make her first career start, and she responded with a game-high 15 points.
"I was in the position where I had to step up and play for the team," Lombardino said. "I just took the opportunity and grabbed it."
Those easy inside baskets plus a couple of timely outside shots allowed Washburn to play up to its No. 1 seed.
Washburn opened the 2010 MIAA Women's Basketball Championship Tournament with an impressive 80-60 victory Thursday afternoon at Municipal Auditorium.
"There's a reason they won the conference championship," Southwest Baptist coach J.C. Carter said. "They are the best defensive team. They are solid. They can guard every position.
"They are not only tough, they are disciplined."
Washburn, 24-3, advances to the semifinals and will play noon Saturday.
Southwest Baptist, which finished the season 10-18, actually took a brief 3-2 lead when Kourtni Williams hit a three-pointer.
After the first couple of minutes anything was possible. The Bearcats entered the tournament brimming with confidence. They won seven of their last nine regular-season games. But one of those losses was to Washburn.
"They were definitely the team coming in here that was on a roll," said senior Brette Ulsaker. "They were going to be a tough eighth seed to play."
The Lady Blues quickly established control by going to Rodriguez. She put Washburn up for good at 4-3.
Rodriguez's basket started a 10-0 run that gave Washburn a 12-3 lead.
Southwest Baptist fought hard to stay close. Once the Bearcats got to within four at 12-8 and after Washburn spurted to a 25-10 lead, Southwest Baptist scored 11 of the next 16 points and trailed 30-21.
"We compete. We are never going to give up," said Southwest Baptist senior Rachel Graves, who finished with 10 points. "Our goal was to fight hard until the very end and just play good defense and see how far we could catch up with them."
But that was as close the Bearcats would get the rest of the game. Washburn scored the next eight points for a 38-21 lead and went into halftime ahead 40-23.
For the half, Washburn shot a blistering 59 percent from the field while holding Southwest Baptist to 29 percent.
Lombardino and Rodriguez combined to go 7 for 9 from the field in the first half.
"I thought Cassie gave us an inside presence early, which she has the ability to do," Washburn coach Ron McHenry said. "Once Dayna came into the game we had another inside presence like the last time we played them where we could get the ball over the top."
The Lady Blues came out in the second half with the same focus and quickly expanded their lead to 48-24.
"In the second half they started doubling us," Lombardino said. "The first half was totally different. The second half was more of a passing game out of the post."
Washburn used the three-pointer in the second half to hurt Southwest Baptist. The Lady Blues knocked down five treys in the final 20 minutes and cruised to a 20-point victory.
To reach David Boyce, contributing writer for the MIAA, e-mail dboyce@themiaa.com.
