Box Score Ashland University's men's basketball team honored its four seniors – guards Brook Turson, DaWuan Thomas and Cole Krizancic and forward Paul Honigford – prior to Saturday (Feb. 21) afternoon's game against Tiffin.
Those seniors, starting together for the first time this season, proceeded to go out and make some history.
The Eagles earned a least a share of their first-ever Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference South Division championship on Saturday, topping the Dragons, 73-59. Ashland now is 19-8 overall and 13-8 in the GLIAC, while Tiffin is 7-20, 3-17.
"It's something that we talk about at the start of the year. I think everybody talks about that stuff at the start of the year," said Ashland head coach John Ellenwood. "As a coach, you just want it to happen for your players. I'm happy for our guys. It just feels good once you can finally say, 'Hey, we did it.'
"This league is a tough league, and any time you can win anything in this league, it's special."
All four seniors played a hand in Saturday's win. Honigford scored a team-high 13 points to go with three assists, Krizancic scored 11 points, Turson had eight points, three rebounds and two assists and Thomas added four points and four assists.
Sophomore forward Wendell Davis finished with 12 points, nine rebounds and six assists, and sophomore guard Adrian Cook came off the bench for 12 points, two assists and two steals in 14 minutes.
Ashland shot 50.9 percent from the field and 45.5 percent from 3-point range. The Eagles turned the ball over just eight times, marking the 10th time in the last 12 outings they have turned the ball over no more than 12 times, and they turned 15 Dragons turnovers into 18 points.
The Eagles, the GLIAC leader in defensive field-goal percentage coming into the game, kept Tiffin to 39.6-percent shooting from the field and 38.9-percent shooting from beyond the arc.
Ashland will look to win the South Division outright on Thursday (Feb. 26) at 7:30 p.m. at Lake Erie. A win on Thursday also would give the program its first 20-win season since 1999-2000 (20).
"It's nice to control our own destiny," Ellenwood said. "Lake Erie is a very good team. They are a mismatch team. I think we will be a little more focused going into that game. We need to be ready to go, and I think our guys, they have accomplished a lot this year, but it's about striving for all you can be."
NOTES: Ellenwood now is alone in fourth place in AU history with 84 wins, and is tied with Bill Musselman for second all-time in games coached with 159…Prior to this season, the Eagles' best finish in the South Division was second or tied for second on three occasions…The starting lineup of the four seniors and Davis was just Ashland's third different starting five in 27 games this season.
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