Box Score The men's basketball teams at Ashland University and Grand Valley State have made it a habit of having to play more than 40 minutes in recent outings.
In 2014-15, the Eagles and Lakers played four overtime periods before AU prevailed, 93-92, at Kates Gymnasium. On Thursday (Dec. 3) night in Allendale, Mich., Ashland needed just five extra minutes to top Grand Valley State, 76-72, in a matchup of unbeatens.
The Eagles are 6-0 overall and 1-0 in the Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference, while the Lakers are 5-1, 0-1. This is the second consecutive season Ashland has begun 6-0, and Thursday's win was its first at GVSU since Jan. 10, 2002.
Junior guard Adrian Cook and junior forward Wendell Davis each had a team-high 16 points in the victory, and the total was a career high for Cook. Davis added six rebounds and a team- and career-high seven assists.
Junior guard Boo Osborne had 15 points, freshman guard Nick Bapst had 13 points off the bench and sophomore forward Marsalis Hamilton added 10 points and a team-high seven boards.
The Eagles had 11 turnovers despite the extra five minutes of game time.
Thursday's game featured 14 ties and 14 lead changes.
Ashland boasted a 22-16 lead with 4:43 to go in the first half before Grand Valley State scored eight straight points and kept the Eagles scoreless for nearly four full minutes. The Lakers were up by three points late in the first half before Davis' 3-pointer sent the two teams to the locker room tied at 27.
Grand Valley State led 38-37 with 14 minutes to go in the second half. That set up a stretch in which there were 10 lead changes in almost six full minutes. The air-tight game was tied at 56 with five minutes to play.
The Lakers led 65-62 with two minutes to go in regulation, then Hamilton converted an old-fashioned 3-point play for a 65-65 tie at the 1:47 mark. Both teams had chances to win in the final 30 seconds, but overtime was the result.
Cook's 3-point play with 2:49 left in the overtime period put AU on top 70-69, then Osborne hits a modern triple to make it 73-69. The Lakers, not going away, made their own trey to cut the Eagle lead to 73-72 at the 1:13 mark of OT.
Davis split a pair of free throws for a 74-72 advantage with 47 seconds in the third period, then finished off the win with two makes with 12 ticks remaining.
Ashland will end its two-game Michigan GLIAC swing on Saturday (Dec. 5) at 5 p.m. at No. 13-ranked Ferris State (7-0, 1-0). That game will be played at Big Rapids High School.
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