Ashland University's women's basketball team extended its winning streak to three games, pulling away in the fourth quarter for a 62-56 victory over Davenport on Friday (Jan. 29) at Kates Gymnasium.
The Eagles improve to 5-3 overall and in the Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference, while the Panthers are 2-6, 2-6.
"I was really proud of our second half. I thought that looked a lot more like Ashland basketball," said Ashland head coach
Kari Pickens. "Even in the first half, I thought we did some good things defensively, the shots just weren't falling."
With the win, the Eagles are 111-9 (.925) in GLIAC home games over the last 10 seasons.
Ashland is 8-0 against Davenport since the Panthers joined the GLIAC.
DAVENPORT ENDS FIRST QUARTER WITH SLIM LEAD
An uneven early start on offense for both teams was broken first by a Panther 3-point field goal, then consecutive layups from Eagle senior forward
Karlee Pireu.
As junior guard
Hallie Heidemann forced two Davenport turnovers in the first four minutes thanks to a charge and a five-second call, Ashland turned the ball over three times early on itself.
A low-scoring first 10 minutes ended with the Panthers leading 14-11. There was a statistical oddity in the first quarter – each team turned the ball over five times, but neither team scored a point off of those.
PANTHERS GO INTO LOCKER ROOM LEADING
Davenport took its largest lead to date at 19-13 early in the second period, but Ashland rallied and answered with a 5-0 spurt. The Panthers scored four in a row later in the second to increase their lead to 26-21, forcing an AU timeout.
Ashland trailed 28-23 at the break, and while the Panthers made just 44.4 percent from the field, the Eagles made just 30 percent.
ROSHAK'S BIG THIRD HELPS PULL AU EVEN
Heidemann got the Eagles' offense off to a good second-half start thanks to an early old-fashioned 3-point play, then her driving layup knotted the game at 28 inside of two minutes into the third quarter. Sophomore forward
Annie Roshak's layup and modern trey extended the run dating back to the end of the first half to 12-0, and gave AU the lead again at 33-28.
It was a punch-counterpunch third, and at the end of it, Roshak scored 13 of her 20 points, and the scoreboard stood at 41-all.
EAGLES COLLECT WIN NO. 5 WITH PLAYS DOWN THE STRETCH
Trailing 44-43 early in the fourth, the Eagles ran off nine straight points for their biggest advantage of the contest at 52-44. Ashland had that lead again at 59-51 late in the game, but Davenport had whittled that down to 59-56 going into the last minute.
The Panthers turned the ball over for the 20
th time in the contest with 29.6 ticks left, but the Eagles coughed it up for the 19
th time on the ensuing inbound pass. Davenport's last shot attempt, a layup, fell off, then, with 5.2 seconds left, freshman forward
Erica Warren made 1-of-2 charity tosses to ice the victory.
THE SUMMARY
Roshak finished with 24 points, eight rebounds, four assists and two blocks, while Pireu added 14 points, seven rebounds, five assists and two steals. Heidemann chipped in with 13 points, eight boards and four steals.
Starting again for AU was freshman guard
Sydney Jacobsen, who had five points, three rebounds, four assists and two steals while playing a role she admits she hasn't played in a long time.
"It is a big adjustment, because I don't think I've played point guard since like eighth-grade middle school basketball," she said. "Everyone's been helping me out. It's a big adjustment, but the reason I've adjusted so well is because everyone has been helping me."
Ashland (85.6 percent) and Davenport (81.6) were the first- and third-best free-throw-shooting teams in the country entering the day, and the Eagles ended the game at 80 percent (12-of-15), and the Panthers 77.8 (7-for-9).
The Eagles now have kept 30 straight opponents to 75 or fewer points.
UP NEXT – HOME VS. DAVENPORT, PART TWO
Ashland and Davenport will face off at "The Kates" again on Saturday (Jan. 30) at 4 p.m.
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