Box Score For guard Alyssa Miller and the AU women's basketball team, the opening bell on Thursday night (Jan. 30) must have sounded like Big Ben.
For the Ohio Dominican Panthers, the sound was equivalent to mallet hitting cymbal on the Gong Show.
The Eagles scored the game's first 13 points and went on to a 75-61 victory. Ashland is 10-7 and 8-5 in the GLIAC. The Panthers are 7-10 and 4-9.
Miller had 19 points, five rebounds and three steals in the first half. She finished the game with 23 points and six rebounds. Miller was 9-for-14 from the floor and 5-of-7 from three-point range.
Freshman forward Suzy Wollenhaupt just missed a double-double with 25 points and nine rebounds. She also had three rejections. The rookie went 9-of-13 from the field.
In the opening half, Miller was active at both ends of the floor. She knocked down a pair of three-pointers in that opening run. She also had two steals and an assist in that spurt.
ODU cut that margin down to six points twice, the last time with 13:05 left in regulation. Then Wollenhaupt hit a pair of free throws, freshman guard Kelsey Peare scored via a layup and guard Taylor Woods buried a three-pointer and AU was up, 52-39 with 11:35 to play.
Woods was the third AU player to reach double digits. She scored 10 points.
The Eagles forced 18 turnovers and enjoyed a 22-13 edge off of turnovers.
Guard Kacee Hockenberry led ODU with 19 points. Forward Melissa Scherpenberg scored 10 points and secured 10 rebounds and guard Tori Beth Leader had 10 points.
This is the first of two meetings between these teams. They will play again at ODU on Feb. 20.
AU will play Tiffin on Saturday (Feb. 1, 1 p.m.) at Kates Gymnasium. The Eagles will be looking to win consecutive games for the first time since Jan. 4 and Jan. 9 when they defeated Lake Superior State and Northern Michigan.
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