Box Score The Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference road weekend wasn't looking good for Ashland University's men's basketball team 12 minutes into Saturday's (Jan. 23) game at Wayne State.
After a loss at Findlay on Thursday (Jan. 21) night, the No. 23-ranked Eagles trailed the Warriors on the road by 12 points on Saturday before rallying for a 68-61 victory.
AU improves to 14-4 overall and 8-4 in the GLIAC, while Wayne State drops to 3-12, 3-9. The Eagles are alone in second place in the South Division, one game behind Findlay, and are two games behind first-place Saginaw Valley State in the overall conference standings.
Four Eagles scored in double figures, and perhaps no one had more of an impact than senior center Michael Hundley, who returned to his home town to post 11 points, four rebounds and a school-record eight blocked shots. Ashland as a team finished with 13 blocks, its most in a single game since at least the start of the 2000-01 season.
Both junior forward Wendell Davis and junior guard Boo Osborne finished with a team-high 13 points, while junior guard Adrian Cook added 11. Davis, Osborne and sophomore forward Marsalis Hamilton each had a team-high six rebounds.
Ashland's defense kept the Warriors to 29.9-percent shooting from the field. The Eagles turned the ball over just nine times, the fourth time they have had single-digit turnovers in 2015-16.
After an early 4-4 tie, the Warriors ran off 10 consecutive points. Wayne State had a 26-14 lead at the 8:03 mark of the first half, but the Eagles responded with a 13-3 run to cut their deficit to 29-27 inside of the two-minute mark.
The Warriors took a 34-29 lead into the locker room, and had slightly increased their advantage to 43-36 coming out of the first media timeout of the second half. That's when Ashland made its first sustained second-half push, going on a 9-1 run to take a 45-44 lead on junior forward Torin Wetzel's triple at the 12:16 mark.
Osborne's free throw at the 7:01 mark gave the Eagles' their biggest lead at that point at 54-48, then the win was put on ice on back-to-back buckets by Davis for a 64-56 advantage with a minute to play.
Ashland will return to Kates Gymnasium on Thursday (Jan. 28) at 7:30 p.m. for a GLIAC South contest against Ohio Dominican (7-11, 4-8).
EAGLE NUGGETS: Davis now has 1,136 career points, good for 18th all-time in Ashland history. He is 12 points behind Brett Bartlett (1,148) for 17th place…Davis also has 487 career rebounds, and is 13 away from becoming the ninth player in program history to be a 1,000-500 performer…Ashland head coach John Ellenwood (98) is two wins away from becoming the third Eagle men's head coach with 100…Saturday's game was the Eagles' seventh straight decided by eight points or less.
AU
MBKB/DS
