Box Score Attendance figures are notorious for being padded.
At the NCAA Division II Women's Basketball Championships in San Antonio, no team has a following as large as the second-ranked Ashland University Eagles.
That being said, no team showed the ability to draw a crowd like the Western Washington Vikings.
No matter where the Vikings went on the basketball court on Wednesday (Mar. 27) in a national semifinal game with Ashland, they had company. Most groupies don't tag along like the Eagles did. AU basketball players filled every nook and cranny of the Bill Greehey Arena floor and that made the difference as the Eagles advanced to the national championship game with a 66-54 victory over the Vikings.
This is AU's second consecutive trip to the national title game. The Eagles will play Dowling on Friday (Mar. 29, 8 p.m. Eastern). Dowling (30-3) reached the ultimate game with a 76-54 win over Augustana. The Eagles are 36-1 and 10-1 in NCAA postseason games the last two seasons.
"It's been a journey, a 365-day journey," said AU head coach Sue Ramsey. "We've taken it one step at a time and ultimately, this is where this team has worked so hard to return. It's not easy, as you can tell."
Nothing came easy for the Eagles against Western Washington. AU gave one of its best defensive performances of the season – it held the fifth-ranked team in the country to a season low in points. The Vikings (29-5) shot 29.5 percent (18-of-61) from the floor. With 15:02 left in regulation, AU led by 10 points, 35-25. The Vikings responded with an 8-0 run to draw to within 35-33 with 13:20 to go.
Ashland still led by just two points, 37-35 when junior guard Alyssa Miller (Zanesville, Ohio/Tri-Valley) took her first shot of the game, a pull-up jumper that gave Ashland a 39-35 lead with 11:39 on the clock. The next score was one of the turning points of the game, a jumper by reserve guard-forward Ashley Dorner (Bellville, Ohio/Clear Fork) with 10:50 to go. That gave the Eagles a six-point spread and when sophomore guard Taylor Woods (Wadsworth, Ohio) was on target with a jumper with 10:26 to play, Ashland had an eight-point lead. That lead grew to 12 points on another Dorner jumper with 8:24 to play and then to 14 points with 7:51 left. The Vikings got no closer than seven points the rest of the game.
"That Western Washington team is a great basketball team," said Ramsey. "Anyone watching this game today certainly got their money's worth. There were extremely talented post players going at each other. When we scouted this team, we said it's a mirror of ourselves. It was going to be a game that the team that did what we do and they do, a little bit better, would be the team that came out on top."
For 40 minutes, the Vikings and Eagles banged each other around Greehey Arena. That occurred under the basket and out on the perimeter. AU shot 18.2 percent (2-of-11) on three-point attempts and Western Washington finished at 29.5 percent (5-of-17). Inside, the Vikings collected 11 offensive rebounds and AU had eight. The battle between AU senior guard-forward Kari Daugherty (Fresno, Ohio/Dayton) and Western Washington's Britt Harris was a 40-minute slugfest.
"It was physical, I felt it was super physical inside," remarked Vikings head coach Carmen Dolfo.
The big difference was that Ashland was able to make the Vikings play from behind all game. It's hard to put together a complete comeback against a defensive team like Ashland, one that doesn't pick up at half court, but picks up at the sidewalk outside the gym.
"I think the first half we played very tentative and I felt we needed to let loose and let go a little bit," said Dolfi. "I felt we needed to get our defense going. I thought the second half we came out and got feisty on defense, relaxed a little on offense and kind of got ourselves back into the game. They just kept having an answer. We'd start moving forward and they'd have an answer. Sometimes when you dig yourself that deep of a hole it's hard to get yourself out and get over the top. It was hard to get over the hump.
They're a great team and play great defense," continued the Western Washington coach. "They were very physical inside with our posts."
Daugherty finished with 24 points and 16 rebounds. She's played in 11 NCAA playoff games and never failed to put a double-double into the books. Gerbec had 19 points and seven rebounds and Dorner, in seven minutes, had six points and three rebounds. The numbers from Daugherty and Gerbec, as brilliant as they are on a nightly basis, are expected. Dorner has battled knee injuries all season and when she came off the bench and connected on 3-of-4 field goal tries and hit the glass with vengeance, the entire team got a lift. She looked like she did a year ago when she was a second team All-GLIAC selection.
"A couple of weeks ago I had a meeting with Coach Fralick (Robyn) and she reminded me to always stay confident," said Dorner. "I need to stay ready. I practice against these two posts (Daugherty, Gerbec) every day and they make me better every day."
"Ashley is the heart and soul of this team," said Daugherty. "For her to be able to come in and knock down that shot, everyone on the team got excited. I thought the bench was going to run out on the court and tackle her right there."
The Eagles took control of this game early, building a 29-19 halftime lead. With 11:47 left in the first half, the Vikings were 1-for-10 from the floor with five turnovers. At halftime, the Vikings were 8-of-32 (25 percent) from the floor and 0-for-5 from three-point distance. Western Washington had nine turnovers in the first half. The Vikings had eight offensive rebounds, but that just added to their frustration because extra chances did not equal extra points.
The run that got the Vikings back in the game was fueled by guard Corinn Waltrip. She led all players in the game with 28 points. She scored four points in that 8-0 resurgence. In the second half, she had three triples and 22 points.
Yet once again, with the game hanging in the balance, the Eagles were able to respond. Daugherty had 12 points and nine rebounds in the second half, Gerbec had 10 points after the intermission and all of Dorner's points and rebounds were posted after halftime. Western Washington is strong inside and AU out-rebounded the Vikings, 43-35 and led in points in the paint, 34-18.
"She's a great player," said Harris of Daugherty. "She has great moves and it was very physical at both ends. She's definitely one of the best posts I've ever seen."
This team just doesn't break," Ramsey said. "The heart and mindset of this team is just amazing."
Harris ended the game with 11 points, nine rebounds and two blocked shots. She was 4-of-15 from the field.
This was the first meeting between the Eagles and Vikings. That will also be the case on Friday night when the Eagles meet Dowling. Neither AU or Dowling has ever won a national championship in women's basketball.
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