Box Score The old college try never grows old. With a population that seeks anything new, that will to keep plugging along never goes out of style in college athletics.
The AU men's basketball team was down by nine points with 18:04 left in regulation Saturday (Dec. 8) at Saginaw Valley State, yet kept its nose to the grindstone and got back in the game.
The SVSU Cardinals kept hitting the offensive glass all afternoon. That persistent effort played a large role in their 66-61 victory over the Eagles.
The Cardinals (4-2/2-1 GLIAC) gathered 11 offensive rebounds and that led to an 11-3 disparity in second chance points. That was just enough to lift the Cards past the Eagles (2-4/1-3) in a game that featured two, defensive-minded outfits.
The style of this game surprised no one. In the early part of this season, AU and SVSU have both lived by their defenses. Ashland began this week ranked 17th in the country in points allowed. The Eagles made life miserable for SVSU offensively all afternoon, but couldn't do enough on the offensive end to separate themselves from the home team. Of AU's 61 points, three players accounted for 51. Senior forward Evan Yates (Cincinnati, Ohio/Walnut Hills) had 22 points, senior guard Ronnie Steward (Columbus, Ohio/Akron) tallied 15 points and junior forward Will Evans (Lexington, Ky./Christian Academy) scored 14 points. All of Steward's points came in the second half.
With 18:04 left in regulation, Ashland was facing a 31-22 hole. Give the Eagles credit, they worked themselves back into the game. With 5:33 left, a Yates layup put Ashland ahead, 47-46. With 3:48 left the score was tied, 49-49.
At that point, the Cardinals put themselves ahead to stay. Rob Clark hit a pair of free throws for a 51-49 lead. AU guard David Harris (Cincinnati, Ohio/Florida) missed a three-pointer and SVSU's Brett Beland answered with a triple for a 54-49 lead. The Eagles stayed close the rest of the way, but they could never get back on top again.
One reason AU couldn't re-gain the lead had to do with SVSU's free throw shooting. Forced to foul in the game's last few minutes, the Eagles watched the Cadinals take full advantage of their charity tosses. SVSU hit 22-of-28 free throw attempts (78.6 percent) in the game.
SVSU out-rebounded the Eagles, 39-31. The Cardinals got 26 points and seven rebounds from guard Chris Webb. Clark had 12 points and 10 rebounds.
The Eagles are idle this coming week.
AU
MBB/ALK
