Box Score The 11th-ranked Ashland University's women's basketball team had a successful opening game in the 2015 Holiday Inn Express Tournament on Saturday (Dec. 19) night, defeating St. Joseph's (Ind.), 86-49, at Kates Gymnasium.
AU improves to 9-0 overall – the Eagles' best start to a season since the 2012-13 NCAA Division II national championship team began 24-0. The Pumas fall to 6-4.
"It was an absolute team victory," said Ashland head coach Robyn Fralick. "I'm really proud of everybody who got into the game. I thought everybody positively impacted the game."
Ashland featured a balanced offense, a smothering defense and dominant rebounding.
Ten Eagles scored at least six points, led by sophomore forward Andi Daugherty's 16. Both junior guard Kelsey Peare and senior guard Jamie Sobczak added 10 points. For Sobczak, it was a career-high-tying total.
"I've definitely felt more comfortable on the floor," said Sobczak. "It was a great team win tonight. The girls help me get adjusted on the floor when I need to be. It's a team effort out there."
"We think that's a strength of our team, is that we have a lot of players who have experience," Fralick said. "We have depth. We have a lot of players who are capable of scoring, rebounding, defending."
AU kept the Pumas to 30.9-percent shooting from the field, and forced 20 turnovers which led to 24 Eagle points.
"Defensively, we held strong and didn't give up a lot of easy points and made it difficult to score," said Fralick.
Ashland had a decided 51-30 rebounding advantage, led by Daugherty's 12 boards and sophomore forward Laina Snyder's 10 caroms. Junior guard Alex Henning added nine points, eight rebounds, four assists and two steals.
The Eagles never trailed. AU took an 18-7 lead into the second quarter, where it led by as many as 17 points before going into halftime up 40-25.
In Saturday night's second game, Walsh improved to 6-2 after an 89-60 win over Urbana (3-4).
Ashland will conclude Holiday Inn Express Tournament play on Sunday (Dec. 20) at 4 p.m. against Urbana, looking for a 10-0 start to the 2015-16 campaign.
"We're all playing well together," Sobczak said. "We have great practices, and we have really good competition. Everybody is a contributor on the team, and I think that's what makes us a great team."
In Sunday's first game, Walsh will take on St. Joseph's at 2 p.m.
EAGLE NUGGETS: The Eagles are 20-1 (.952) in home games against non-conference opponents in this decade, and are 33-4 (.892) in such games in the last 10 seasons…Snyder, Daugherty and fellow sophomore forward Julie Worley have led or co-led Ashland in rebounding in all 43 of their games with the program…AU now is 101 games over .500 (122-21, .853) since the start of the 2011-12 campaign.
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