Box Score Most every carnival has a haunted house. The horrors contained within those walls are produced with smoke and mirrors.
For University of Findlay basketball fans, Croy Gymnasium qualifies as a fun house. That same building is a chamber of horrors for visiting teams and make no mistake about it – it's very real. It contains fire-and-brimstone basketball and for visitors, it's Fright Night on a regular basis.
The Ashland University men's basketball team took a four-game winning streak to Findlay on Thursday (Feb. 14). Like so many teams that have ventured there, no success or momentum was found. The Oilers won, 69-52, leaving AU with a 9-12 card, 7-11 in the GLIAC. UF is 16-6, 13-5 in conference play.
AU's last win in this building came in 2001-02. Findlay owns a 13-game home winning streak against the Eagles. As AU head coach John Ellenwood emphasized earlier this week, there is no harder place to play in the GLIAC than Findlay.
The Eagles encountered immediate trouble on Thursday. Findlay scored the game's first 10 points and with 15:12 remaining in the first half led, 16-2. For much of the first half AU was staring at a 10-point deficit. The Eagles did manage to put together a run late in the half and when senior guard David Harris (Cincinnati, Ohio/Florida) dropped in a layup with 1:52 left before halftime, AU trailed by just three points, 26-23. At halftime, Findlay had a 30-24 lead.
AU deserves a lot of credit for getting back into the game. After surviving that early run, which saw the Oilers hit their first six shots, AU played solid defense and made it a game. With 15:50 left in regulation, the Eagles trailed by just 38-31.
But that's where the game got away from the Eagles. Findlay went on a 9-0 run over the next 2:13 and AU could never recover. Forward Brad Piehl had four points in that stretch and forward Jake Heagan had five points during the burst. By the time that sprint concluded, Ashland trailed, 47-31 with 13:11 left in the game. Piehl and Heagan hurt the Eagles all night. Piehl had 18 points and 14 rebounds and Heagan had 11 points and six rebounds.
Another culprit in Ashland's demise was forward Greg Kahlig. He entered the game as UF's leading scorer (16.0 ppg.) and AU can't quibble with that fact. Kahlig had 23 points, 15 in the second half. Findlay shot 54.2 percent from the field (13-of-24) in the second half. Over the last 20 minutes, the Oilers didn't miss much from anywhere on the floor. They were 9-of-10 at the free throw line and 3-of-5 on three-point tries. That kind of shooting made mounting a comeback difficult for the Eagles.
AU hurt itself in several areas. While the Eagles had just 12 turnovers, compared to 13 for UF, the Oilers enjoyed a 17-8 edge in points off of turnovers. The Eagles didn't help themselves at the free throw line either, going 7-for-14 (50 percent).
Senior forward Evan Yates (Cincinnati, Ohio/Walnut Hills) paced AU with 18 points. Sophomore guard Cole Krizancic (Mentor, Ohio) scored a career-high 17 points. Krizancic was 7-of-10 from the floor, 3-of-6 from three-point range. Krizancic's teammates struggled from behind the three-point arc, going 0-for-8.
AU will play at Hillsdale on Saturday (Feb. 16, 1 p.m.).
AU
MBB/ALK
