AU Women Win Second Straight On Road, 78-66, Over Lakers

Ashland University forwards Annie Roshak and Karlee Pireu combined to score 50 points, and another Eagle forward, Kayla Sanders, had a career game off the bench, as the AU women's basketball team won at Lake Superior State on Friday (Feb. 26) night, 78-66.
 
The Eagles, seeking a first-round bye in the 2021 Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference, improve to 10-7 overall and in the GLIAC, in winning their second road game in a row and 14^th in a row against the Lakers (1-16, 1-16).
 
Roshak scored a game-high 31 points on 12-of-18 shooting from the field and 5-of-5 from the free-throw line, while Pireu added 19 points and 10 rebounds for her sixth double-double of the season.
 
Sanders, meanwhile, came in and scored a career-high 10 points and added five rebounds, two assists, three steals (another career high) and a blocked shot in 21 minutes.
 
The Lakers led 16-6 halfway through the first quarter, as they made six of their first eight shots from the field. Ashland scored six points in a row and kept LSSU off the scoreboard for four minutes, and at the end of the period, a 12-3 run to end it saw the Eagles down just a point at 19-18.
 
In that opening stanza, Roshak, who began the weekend as the GLIAC's leading scorer, had 11 points.
 
Sanders' back-to-back layups early in the second quarter put the Eagles ahead, 22-20, then a triple from junior guard Hallie Heidemann made it a 25-20 game. By halftime, Ashland led 35-29, thanks to nine points from Heidemann and eight points from Sanders.
 
In the third quarter, it was Pireu's turn to go on a scoring streak, scoring AU's first six points. The Lakers, however, had cut their deficit to 43-42 halfway through the period, but Roshak scored the Eagles' last seven points in the third to help AU take a 50-47 advantage into the fourth.
 
Roshak picked up in the fourth where she left off in the third, scoring nine points as Ashland led 63-60 at the media timeout inside of the five-minute mark. She then scored back-to-back layups to put the Eagles on top 67-62 with four minutes remaining.
 
Ashland pulled away at the end, scoring 11 of the game's final 15 points.
 
Heidemann rounded out four Eagles in double-digit scoring with 14 points, as Ashland shot 53.6 percent from the field and 13-of-15 from the charity stripe.
 
The Eagles and Lakers will conclude the regular season on Saturday (Feb. 27) at 4:30 p.m. in Sault Ste. Marie, Mich.