Box Score CANTON, Ohio – In the end, time just wasn't on the Eagles' side.
The No. 3-ranked Ashland University women's basketball team saw its undefeated season come to an end on Thursday (Feb. 4) night, losing for the first time in 2015-16 at Walsh, 69-58. The Eagles are 21-1 overall and 15-1 in the Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference, while the Cavaliers are 14-7, 11-5.
"Walsh played a good game," said Ashland head coach Robyn Fralick. "I thought we played really hard for that fourth quarter, but it was too late."
Ashland continues to lead both the overall conference standings and the South Division by three games with six regular-season contests to go. The loss ended the program's winning streaks of 21 games overall, 25 in the regular season, 19 in the GLIAC regular season and 11 away from Kates Gymnasium.
Junior guard Alex Henning led Ashland with 17 points and added seven rebounds, sophomore forward Andi Daugherty added 13 points and a team-high seven rebounds and sophomore forward Laina Snyder posted 11 points (now with 809 for her career), five boards, five steals and three assists.
Ashland shot 81.3 percent from the free-throw line, and turned 22 Cavalier turnovers into 25 points, but turned the ball over 18 times and shot 32.8 percent from the field and 3-of-19 from 3-point range.
Thursday's game started at a slow pace in the scoring column, with Walsh taking an 8-5 lead inside of the five-minute mark of the first quarter on two 3-pointers. Ashland kept its trademark defense strong, and the score remained the same until a Daugherty layup with 2:47 left in the opening period.
Walsh, however, hit four first-quarter triples, and led 14-9 after the first 10 minutes.
Down 18-11 in the second quarter, the Eagles continued to chip away at their deficit while playing quality "D." Ashland had worked the game to one point at 20-19 with 3:06 until the break, but the Cavaliers took a 28-23 lead into the locker room.
Walsh was helped by six 3-pointers, and each team turned the ball over a dozen times in the first 20 minutes.
The Cavaliers began the third quarter on a 15-1 run to take a 19-point lead at 43-24, and while the Eagles were able to slow Walsh down, they still trailed 49-34 going into the final quarter.
"We didn't play with enough energy to start that second half, or urgency," Fralick said. "That's obviously something we need to make an adjustment with."
Ashland began chipping away in the fourth, getting the game to 10 points at 55-45 with 6:15 remaining, then seven at 56-49 with 5:16 left. The Eagles trailed 58-51 with 3:23 to go when the Cavaliers called a timeout, and kept going coming out of it.
Two Henning free throws made it a 58-55 game at the 2:52 mark, but another Walsh triple extended its lead back to six points, and a fall-away layup made the score 63-55 with 90 seconds to play.
Ashland will return to Kates Gymnasium for another GLIAC South Division game on Saturday (Feb. 6) at 1 p.m. against Malone (6-5, 3-13).
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