Box Score In a court of law or a basketball court, the defense should never rest.
The Ashland University women's basketball team adopted an F. Lee Bailey-like defensive demeanor Thursday night (Feb. 7) at Kates Gymnasium and that served them well in a 76-58 victory over Walsh.
The Eagles, ranked first in the nation, are 23-0, 16-0 in GLIAC play. Walsh, which would never go away on this night, is 6-13 and 3-12.
There are going to be nights over the course of a season that stretches from November to March, where a team's execution on offense goes AWOL. That happened to the Eagles on Thursday. Walsh deserves some credit for that. The Cavaliers made life miserable for the Eagles for 40 minutes. Yet in the end, what made the difference for the Eagles was that their defense never waned. Unlike offense, which can be finicky, a good defense rarely takes a night off.
The last two or three visitors to Kates Gymnasium found themselves in a canyon-like hole five minutes into the game. The Cavaliers did not face that dilemma. At the 10-minute mark of the first half Ashland led, 15-11. With 5:14 to in the first half Ashland was in front, 28-17. The teams took a halftime break with the Eagles leading, 38-28.
The Eagles went ahead by 20 points, 70-50 with 2:42 left in regulation. That's much later than normal for this Ashland team, which has now won 35 straight at home.
"The whole temperament of the game was a little different than what we're used to," said AU head coach Sue Ramsey.
Walsh deserves some credit for that. The first time these teams played, AU won, 76-53. It might not seem like much, reducing the margin from 23 to 18 points, but the final margin doesn't do justice to the way the Cavaliers handled themselves. Walsh forced 17 turnovers and never let the Eagles get into a rhythm.
"I told their coach before the game I thought they were the team that's improved the most," said Ramsey. "Berry (Maggie) has really stepped up her game, she has confidence in her outside shot. Tracy Payne does a lot of good things. Those are the two we needed to lock down."
Berry, a forward, ended up with 20 points (7-for-11 from the field, 4-of-6 from three-point range) and Payne had 16 points. Walsh shot 42.1 percent (24-of-57) from the floor. The Cavaliers are the first team to shoot 40 percent or better against the Eagles since the first AU-Walsh game on Jan. 10. Walsh shot 41.1 percent in that game.
There are several other numbers, however, that were in Ashland's favor and that spelled trouble for Walsh. The Eagles out-rebounded the Cavaliers, 40-27 and led in second chance points, 14-2. The Eagles forced 17 turnovers and led in points off of turnovers, 20-9.
The Eagles, as usual, received a sterling effort from senior forward Daiva Gerbec (Dublin, Ohio/Bishop Watterson). She had 23 points and 15 rebounds. Gerbec, who leads the GLIAC in field goal percentage, clicked on 10-of-14 field goal attempts.
"What's not on the stat sheet is the energy she brought us," said Ramsey. "That was the key to our success today."
The Eagles also got 13 points from sophomore guard Taylor Woods (Wadsworth, Ohio) and 10 points each from senior guard-forward Ashley Dorner (Bellville, Ohio/Clear Fork) and junior guard Alyssa Miller (Zanesville, Ohio/Tri-Valley). Dorner also had six rebounds.
Next up for the Eagles is home game with Malone on Saturday (Feb. 9, 3 p.m.). The Pioneers have been one of the GLIAC's best defensive teams throughout this season. When the teams played at Malone earlier this season the Eagles won, 81-57.
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