Box Score COLUMBUS, Ohio – Ashland University's women's basketball team has had a hard time shooting at Alumni Hall on the campus of Ohio Dominican in the past.
The Eagles haven't had trouble winning at ODU. That, however, was put to the test on Thursday (Feb. 18) night.
Trailing 49-34 in the third quarter, No. 5-ranked Ashland used a 30-6 run to defeat Ohio Dominican on the road, 74-65. AU, already the champion of the Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference regular season and the South Division, as well as the No. 1 team in the first Division II Midwest Region rankings, moves to 25-1 overall and 19-1 in the GLIAC, while the Panthers are 19-7, 14-6.
"We just started playing to win," said Ashland head coach Robyn Fralick. "We picked up our pressure, got more aggressive on both ends of the court. I thought we played a lot tougher, I thought we played a lot harder and I thought we played a lot more aggressive."
Ashland is 6-0 at ODU since the Panthers joined the GLIAC. The Eagles, however, have made less than 40 percent of their field goals in half of those wins. On Thursday, AU's field-goal percentage was 33.8.
Sophomore forward Laina Snyder led all players on Thursday in points (24) and rebounds (13), while going 8-for-8 from the free-throw line and adding three steals. It was Snyder's 25th career double-double.
"I think the whole game, we were trying to get that to go," Snyder said. "Once we got into our full-court press and we started getting stops, it's very evident that our defense leads to our offense. Our offense wasn't working the best tonight, so it helped tremendously to get that defense going."
Sophomore forward Andi Daugherty posted 12 points, five rebounds, three assists and a game-high five steals, sophomore forward Julie Worley added 10 points and six boards and freshman guard Maddie Dackin scored a career-high 12 points and added three rebounds, two assists and two steals off the bench.
"Maddie made big plays," said Fralick. "Not only did she score, she made a lot of hustle plays. She was very critical in our ability to get a win tonight."
Ashland kept the Panthers to 9-for-27 shooting from the floor in the second half, including 1-for-7 from 3-point range.
Two weeks earlier at Walsh, the Eagles trailed by 19 points in the third quarter and couldn't come back.
Lessons learned.
"After a game like that, you realize you can't wait that long to play hard," Fralick said. "I was just so proud of them. They really turned it up. I just thought we started making tough plays."
Snyder said, "Nobody wants to lose. We could have gone without losing, but, tonight, on the bench, even during the game, we were, 'We did this at Walsh, and we need to learn from what we did.'"
Both teams had difficulty putting the ball in the basket in the early going, as it was a 10-5 ODU lead with 4:28 left in the opening quarter. The Panthers extended their early advantage to 15-6, then 18-8 before taking an 18-10 lead into the second quarter.
Ashland was able to inch closer to start the new period, but Ohio Dominican had the answer, going back on top by 10 points at 30-20 with 4:54 left until halftime. That lead was extended to 37-20 before Dackin's 3-pointer ended the Eagles' 4½-minute scoreless streak and the Panthers' 12-0 run.
At the half, Ashland trailed 37-25. The difference was shooting from the field – ODU hit 53.3 percent to AU's 33.3.
Ohio Dominican increased its lead to 45-29 in the first four minutes of the third quarter, and the Eagles had a hard time getting any traction until back-to-back baskets made its 49-38 game.
By the end of the third, AU trailed 52-43 thanks to a 9-3 spurt.
Momentum carried over into the fourth quarter, as the Eagles eliminated their deficit and made it a 52-52 game with 7:29 to play. Then, Daugherty's layup put Ashland on top, 54-52, inside of the seven-minute mark.
Snyder broke a 54-all tie with a jump shot, and Ashland never looked back.
The Eagles will return to the road on Saturday (Feb. 20) at 1 p.m. against Tiffin (7-18, 5-15).
THE NOTEBOOK: Ashland avoided losing consecutive road games for the first time since Jan. 10 and 15, 2015…The Eagles have won more games than any other Division II women's basketball team since the start of 2010-11 (157)…Snyder, Daugherty and/or Worley have led or co-led Ashland in rebounds in 59 of 60 career games.
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