Box Score It's one thing to be the No. 7-ranked team in Division II.
It's another thing to play like the No. 7-ranked team in Division II.
Ashland University's women's basketball team did just that in the second half on Thursday (Jan. 7) night at Kates Gymnasium, improving to 13-0 overall and 7-0 in the Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference following a 75-49 win over Northern Michigan (4-9, 3-4).
The 13 straight wins to begin the season are the program's second-best start, only trailing the 24 in a row won at the start of the 2012-13 national championship season.
"The second half, our defense was much better," said AU head coach Robyn Fralick, who became the first Eagle women's basketball head coach to win her first 13 games leading the program. "We felt like, in the first half, we weren't finishing well. We were missing a lot of shots that maybe we normally make, and that was dictating our defensive effort.
"In the second half, I thought our defensive effort was really good consistently."
Postgame Comments
The Eagles, who lead the GLIAC South Division by two games over both Findlay and Walsh, came into Thursday as one of seven undefeated women's basketball teams in Division II.
Ashland was paced by the sophomore forward tandem of Laina Snyder and Julie Worley. Snyder, the reigning GLIAC South Division Player of the Week, made a good case to repeat by posting a game-high 23 points and 12 rebounds to go with three assists, two blocks and five steals.
Worley came off the bench and was instant offense once again – a career-high 16 points on 7-of-8 shooting from the field in just 15 minutes. She added six rebounds and two steals.
In the last three games, Worley has scored 41 points in 42 minutes.
"We've always felt a big strength of our team is our post play and our depth," Fralick said, "and Julie, obviously, is very indicative of that."
Said Worley, "Now that I'm healthy and back in the routine of practices and games, I'm playing a lot more confidently, and I feel like I am fitting in very well with the girls."
The Eagles had 27 assists on 31 field goals, and turned 26 Wildcat turnovers into 17 points.
Leading 34-29 at the half, AU turned it on in the second 20 minutes, outscoring Northern Michigan, 41-20, shooting 58.6 percent from the field and hitting 5-of-6 from 3-point range.
Ashland will continue its three-game homestand on Saturday (Jan. 9) at 1 p.m. against North Division-leading Michigan Tech (8-3, 6-1). It will be Senior Citizens Day at Kates Gymnasium.
EAGLE NUGGETS: Since the start of the 2010-11 campaign, the Eagles are 145-31 (.824) overall, 92-19 (.829) in the GLIAC and 76-10 (.884) at home…The sophomore trio of Snyder, Andi Daugherty and Julie Worley have led or co-led Ashland in rebounds in all 47 games together...Senior guard McKenzie Miller had her fourth game with seven assists in 2015-16.
Game Highlights
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