TAHLEQUAH, Okla. – The Northeastern State women's basketball team lost 56-46 to Washburn Thursday night inside the NSU Event Center.
 
The RiverHawks (5-9, 2-6 MIAA) dropped to 2-9 in their last 11 games, while the Ichabods (10-5, 6-2 MIAA) improved to 6-1 in their last seven outings.
 
Senior guard Kate Bellamy scored a career-high 19 points on 6-of-10 shooting. She was also a perfect 7-for-7 at the free-throw line. Junior forward Mary Jane Buschmann needed 15 shots to get to 13 points and was the only other member of the team in double figures.
 
NSU shot 33.3 percent (16-for-48) from the field, 26.1 percent (6-for-23) from behind the arc and 80 percent (8-for-10) at the free-throw line. The Ichabods shot 33.9 percent (21-for-62) overall, 20 percent (5-for-25) from distance and 90 percent (9-for-10) at the charity stripe.
 
Haley Pfau used 13 shots to amass 13 points for the visitors. Felisha Gibbs and Erika Lane both scored 12, while Alyxis Bowens contributed 10 off the bench. Jayna Smith was just 1-for-7 from the field and only scored two points, but she pulled down 20 rebounds and added four assists and two steals in 37 minutes. This marked the second time this season an NSU opponent registered at least 20 rebounds in a game.
 
Washburn led in rebounding (46-29), steals (6-3), second-chance points (10-4), bench points (10-2) and fewer turnovers (7-9). NSU led in blocks (6-2) and points off turnovers (7-5).
 
The RiverHawks will next entertain No. 8 Emporia State at 1:30 p.m. Jan. 9.
 
NORTHEASTERN STATE COACH RANDY GIPSON
Opening statement...
"I feel like we came out and tried to give a good effort today. I feel like we're a little weary from all the traveling games that we've had. That might have affected our shooting a little bit. We didn't make some shots that we needed to make. Washburn is a sound team. They defend well. Their size ended up wearing us down. We didn't rebound well enough in the second half to give ourselves a chance to catch up when we needed to play catch up. Our players tried to execute our game plan, but we just didn't make enough plays."
 
On only having nine turnovers…
"Our team has done a good job of taking care of the ball in all but one game this season, so that's a trend I hope we can continue. If we make more shots and get more defensive rebounds, then we have a chance to win this game. We just weren't able to get those things done."
 
On Kate Bellamy's career-high 19 points…
"Kate is an outstanding individual and a team leader. She's really trying all she can do to help push this team to as high as it can go. I'm not surprised when she does things in terms of showing great effort and leadership. She did that for us tonight, we just couldn't give her quite enough help."
 
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