Box Score Ashland University's men's basketball team lost a second 2015-16 Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference home heartbreaker on Thursday (Jan. 14), falling 74-72 to Walsh at Kates Gymnasium in the start of GLIAC South Division play.
The Eagles, ranked No. 17 in Division II, are 12-3 overall and 6-3 in the conference. They fall into a first-place tie with Findlay in the South.
The Cavaliers are 7-6, 5-4.
A 3-point field goal by Zac Carter with six seconds to play lifted Walsh over Ashland, which led by as many as five points at 67-62 with just inside five minutes to play.
"I tip my hat to Walsh. They seem like they fought pretty hard for it," said Ashland head coach John Ellenwood. "They won the loose-ball wars, it seemed, all night.
"Last year, they were 1-7 coming into the GLIAC South, and ended up getting to the semifinals of the conference tournament. Them being 4-4…if they lost this game, they were down three games to us. Now, they're down one. It's just the way it is in this league."
On Dec. 12 at home against Saginaw Valley State, the Eagles lost in the final seconds, 68-66. AU is 19-5 (.792) in its last 24 home games, and those five losses have come by nine, one, two, two and two points.
Four Eagles scored in double figures on Thursday, led by junior forward Wendell Davis with 17 points. He added nine rebounds and seven assists, and passed Lamont Scott to move into 20th place on Ashland's all-time scoring list with 1,095 points.
Both sophomore forward Marsalis Hamilton and junior guard Adrian Cook scored 16 points, while junior forward Torin Wetzel came off the bench with 11.
Each team turned the ball over just seven times. Walsh, however, had a 46-37 rebounding advantage, including 16 offensive boards.
"They fought for the boards," Ellenwood said.
Ashland led by eight points at 27-19 with 8:19 left until halftime, and by 10 at 38-28 with 3:15 to go until the break, but Walsh scored seven unanswered points before Cook's triple lifted the Eagles to a 41-35 halftime advantage.
With 4:54 to play, Ashland led 67-62 on an old-fashioned 3-point play by Hamilton, but the Cavaliers scored seven in a row in 2:09 to take the lead. In the final 2:45 of the game, there were three lead changes and a tie.
Thursday's game was Ashland's fourth in a row decided by six points or less, and its seventh such game of the season.
Ashland will begin a three-game GLIAC road swing on Saturday (Jan. 16) at 3 p.m. at Malone (3-11, 0-9).
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