It wasn't pretty, but for the No. 8-ranked Ashland University women's basketball team on Wednesday (Dec. 29) night at the Sherrill Hudson Court at Kates Gymnasium, it was win No. 10 on the 2021-22 season.
A 77-58 home victory over the Pioneers on Wednesday kept the Eagles alone in first place in the Great Midwest Athletic Conference at 10-1 overall and 5-0 in the league, while Malone is 7-5, 3-3. Ashland has won seven in a row, while the Pioneers have lost four straight.
"Malone's a really good team, and I was really pleased with a lot of things that we saw today," said Ashland head coach
Kari Pickens. "To see us respond as well as we did in the fourth quarter was really exciting. When the going got tough, we rose to the challenge.
"A season is such a journey. If we were playing our best basketball right now, I'd be worried. We want to continue to take steps forward."
Ashland outscored Malone 24-11 in the final stanza to seal the victory.
WHAT HAPPENED
- Up 4-0 early, the Eagles took an 11-7 advantage into the first media timeout. Coming out of that stoppage, Ashland turned up the heat, and by the end of the initial quarter, lead was 27-13, thanks in large part to eight assists on 11 made field goals, and six forced turnovers.
- The Eagles continued to keep the Pioneers at arm's length to start the second quarter, leading 34-23 at the stanza's media break. Malone, however, got to within four points at 34-30 by keeping AU off the board for more than five minutes, and at the half, the Eagle lead was 36-30.
- In that second quarter, Malone made 8-of-13 from the field, Ashland just 4-of-16 – which helped the Pioneers to a 17-4 half-ending run to cut their deficit to six.
- Malone cut its deficit to three points at 40-37, 42-39 and 44-41 early in the third quarter, but Ashland continued to fend off the Pioneers. It was a 47-45 AU lead with 3:10 left in the third, and it was 53-47 at the end of the third, as Malone turned the ball over 17 times in the first 30 minutes.
- Sophomore guard Macy Spielman made an old-fashioned 3-point play to put Ashland up 58-49 early in the fourth period, then junior forward Annie Roshak connected on a modern triple to put AU up by 10 points at 61-51. The Eagles went on to victory from there.
- Four Eagles scored in double figures in the victory – senior guard Hallie Heidemann (16 points), senior forward Karlee Pireu (15), Roshak (15) and Spielman (13). With 1,324 career points, Pireu moves into 11th place on AU's all-time scoring list, and both she and Roshak had a team-high six assists in the victory.
- "One of the things that we focused on when we came back from break…was missed inside-out opportunities," Pickens said. "That part of the game was really, really good."
- Ashland, which was the No. 2 team in NCAA Division II in field-goal percentage at 48.2 coming into the game, made 49.2 percent from floor on Wednesday. The Eagles also were 11-of-22 from beyond the arc.
- The Pioneers turned the ball over 21 times, resulting in 21 Eagle points.
UP NEXT
Ashland will conclude the 2021 calendar year on Friday (Dec. 31) at 1 p.m. at Walsh (8-2, 3-1).
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