KANSAS CITY, Mo. – The 2025-26 MIAA men’s basketball regular season champion, Washburn University, claimed its second trophy of the season after winning the 2026 MIAA Men’s Basketball Championship with a dominant victory over Rogers State in the tournament finale. The Ichabods downed the Hillcats 91-59 to set a new MIAA tournament record for largest scoring margin in a championship game.
 
The league’s top ten teams from the 2025-26 regular season advanced to the Association’s postseason championship tournament, hosted March 4-8 in Kansas City’s historic Municipal Auditorium. Washburn earned the top seed in the championship after claiming the regular season crown with an MIAA record of 18-1.  
 
The Ichabods downed No. 9 seed Central Oklahoma 91-52 in the MIAA quarterfinals and then Noo. 4 seed Missouri Western 85-69 in Saturday’s semifinals to return to the championship game for the first time since 2022. They went on to claim the 2026 championship crown with a 32-point win over No. 3 seed Rogers State in the tournament finale on Sunday, March 8.
 
Washburn had five players finish in double figures, led by Bryson Smith with a game-high 21 points and Brady Christian with 15 points and 15 rebounds – the only double-double performance of the game. The 2026 Tournament MVP Jack Bachelor added 14 points for the Ichabods and recorded a game-high nine assists. Three Hillcats finished in double-figure scoring, led by Damondre McKnight with 15 points.  
 
The 2026 tournament title is Washburn’s second in the past six seasons. The Ichabods now own seven MIAA tournament championships for the second-most in the league (Northwest Missouri leads the league with 12).
 
Washburn women also won the 2026 championship with a 53-44 win over No. 1 seed Central Missouri. It’s the eighth time in tournament history that the same institution has won both men’s and women’s tournament titles. The last team to do so was Washburn in 2012.
 
Five talented players were named to the 2026 MIAA Men’s Basketball Championship’s All-Tournament Team: Missouri Southern’s Jaden Taylor, Rogers State’s Jabryn Anderson, and Washburn’s Brady Christianson, Jeremiah Jones, and Jack Bachelor, the tournament MVP.  
 
To view the official schedule and find the final results from each game of the 2026 MIAA Basketball Championships, visit theMIAA.com/basketball.
 
The win awards the Ichabods with the Association’s automatic qualifier into the 2026 NCAA Division II postseason. The official 64-team bracket for the 2026 NCAA Division II Men’s Basketball Championship will be announced during the Division II Selection Show, scheduled for Sunday, March 8, at 10 p.m. CT on NCAA.com.