Box Score FINDLAY, Ohio – It was the most difficult of wins for the No. 4-ranked Ashland University women's basketball team, but it sure was satisfying.
The Eagles rallied from a 13-point second-quarter deficit to improve to 17-0 overall and 11-0 in the Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference with a 78-69 win on Thursday (Jan. 21) night at Findlay (11-6, 6-5).
"I was proud of our kids," said Ashland head coach Robyn Fralick. "We really showed some fight. We had some adversity. We needed to play better, especially in that first quarter. I love the way we fought back and got ourselves back in the game by halftime."
The victory not only kept Ashland, which leads the GLIAC overall and South Division standings, undefeated in 2015-16, but it also marked the program's 21st consecutive regular-season win. The 17 straight wins to start season are the second-most in program history, only trailing the 24 in a row to begin the 2012-13 NCAA Division II national championship season.
Ashland came into Thursday night as one of four undefeated women's basketball teams in Division II.
Individually, the Eagles were paced by junior point guard Alex Henning and sophomore forward Andi Daugherty. Henning not only scored a career-high 24 points, but doubled her previous high as an Eagle. She was 7-for-12 from the field and 9-for-10 from the free-throw line while adding seven rebounds and three steals.
"I think we all just worked together and we fought really hard," Henning said. "I just attacked the basket and finished.
"We know how to deal with pressure now, and I think it was good that we got challenged."
Henning Highlights & Comments
Said Fralick, "She played great. They tried to pressure full-court the whole game, they do a good job of that. She did a good job of attacking pressure."
Daugherty filled up the stat sheet with 21 points on 6-of-11 from the field and 9-of-11 from the foul line, a team-high eight boards, five assists, two blocks and five steals.
"To be 17-0 right now, it's something that we know, but it's just the next game," Daugherty said. "The next game is the most important game. It's good to come out of here with a win. Findlay's a hard place to play."
Sophomore forward Laina Snyder added 12 points, five rebounds, three blocks and two steals.
In the second half, the Eagles shot 57.9 percent from the floor and was 22-of-25 from the charity stripe. AU had a 31-26 rebounding advantage, and turned 21 Oiler turnovers into 23 points.
Down early by an 8-5 count, Ashland scored the next five points to take the lead. With the game tied at 13 outside of two minutes left in the first quarter, Findlay converted a 4-point play en route to having a 21-17 advantage through the game's first 10 minutes.
After tying for the most points allowed in a first quarter this season, the Eagles fell behind 35-22 in the second quarter before reeling off nine consecutive points. By halftime, AU worked its deficit down to 37-33.
Trailing 46-41 with 5:24 to go in the third quarter, Ashland forced Findlay's fifth foul of the period. The Eagles pulled even with the Oilers at 46 just 10 seconds later on Daugherty's old-fashioned 3-point play, then sophomore forward Julie Worley's driving layup at the 3:16 mark put AU back on top, 50-49.
In the third period, Ashland hit 11-of-12 free throws en route to having a 57-56 lead at the end of it.
Daugherty hit two charity tosses with 6:33 to go in the fourth to put Ashland ahead 63-58, its biggest lead to date. When the Oilers cut their deficit to two at 65-63, Daugherty responded with another converted hoop-and-harm sequence to give the Eagles a 68-63 lead with 4:44 remaining.
When Henning hit both freebies with 3:06 to play, and senior guard McKenzie Miller split a pair at the 2:34 mark, Ashland extended its lead to 74-66 and didn't look back.
Ashland will finish its three-game GLIAC roadtrip on Saturday (Jan. 23) at 1 p.m. at Wayne State.
EAGLE NUGGETS: The Eagles are 130-21 (.861) in their last 151 games…The sophomore trio of Snyder, Daugherty and Worley have led or co-led Ashland in rebounds in all 51 games together…Since the start of the 2011-12 season, AU is 84-12 (.875) in the GLIAC and 52-13 (.800) on the road…Ashland and Findlay have alternated wins and losses in each of their last seven meetings at Croy Gymnasium.
Coach Fralick Post-Game
AU
WBKB/DS
