Box Score While most of America was digging in at the dinner table this week, the Ashland University women's basketball team was working away at an appetizer. The Eagles' heavy meal is yet to come.
The Eagles stuffed themselves with a lot of basketball this weekend (Nov. 27-28), hosting the Ashland Holiday Inn Express Classic. They played two games in two days and on Sunday (Nov. 28), ran their record to 5-0 with an 80-45 victory over Wheeling Jesuit.
As impressive as that performance was, these first five games are really just the first course of the 2010-2011 season. The main course starts this Thursday (Dec. 2) when GLIAC play opens at Hillsdale. Next Saturday (Dec. 4) AU will play another conference game at Wayne State.
Time will tell if these games have properly prepped the Eagles for the conference slate. AU is allowing 53.4 ppg., and is outrebounding the opposition, 45.2-35.8. The opposition is shooting 30.4 percent from the field, 29.6 percent from three-point range.
Wheeling Jesuit (1-4) was the latest team to spin its wheels against the Eagles. Ashland led, 42-22 at halftime. Over the first 20 minutes, Ashland shot 55.6 percent (15-of-27) from the field and from three-point range (five-of-nine). Contrast that with the Cardinals making just 25 percent (eight-of-32) of their field goal tries in the first half. Ashland scored the game's first seven points and led, 7-0 with 2:44 gone in the game. At the halfway point of the half, AU was in front, 20-11.
In just about every statistical category, the Eagles enjoyed a large advantage. AU led in fastbreak points, 14-4, in points in the paint, 42-12 and in bench points, 27-7.
AU's leading scorer was junior guard Jena Stutzman (Berlin, Ohio/Kent State) who seems to get more comfortable with each game. Stutzman, in her first year at AU, went eight-of-16 from the floor and four-of-seven from three point range to finish with a team-high 20 points. She's averaging 15.6 ppg., which leads the team. This was her second 20-plus game of the year – she had 22 points in the season opener at Mercyhurst.
Sophomore center Daiva Gerbec (Dublin, Ohio/Bishop Watterson) notched her third double-double of the season with 10 points and 13 rebounds. Senior forward Liz Tyler (Monroeville, Ohio) had 10 points, six rebounds and three steals. Sophomore guard Lindsay Tenyak (Wadsworth, Ohio) had 11 points off the bench. Tenyak, who has not started a game, is fourth on the team in scoring (8.8 ppg.).
Ashland had eight players score five points or more. Nine players logged 15 or more minutes.
Just about all the Cardinals' offense came from guard Kourtney Booth, who had 23 points. She went five-for-12 from three-point range.
This is the first time the Eagles have started the season 5-0 since 2008-09.
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