The Ashland University men's basketball team pulled ahead early, then kept Wayne State at arm's reach the rest of the way as the Eagles moved on in the NCAA Tournament with a 76-61 win in the first round at the Ford Center in Evansville, Ind.
It marked Ashland's first NCAA Tournament win since 1991 when the Eagles advanced to the NCAA Division II Elite Eight.
Ashland will now play Truman State at 7 p.m. ET Sunday (March 14) in the NCAA Division II Midwest Region semifinals.
Throughout their run to the GLIAC Tournament championship, the Eagles (15-8) turned up their offense and got their scoring machine going. On Saturday night, the Eagles won on the basis of their defense.
They forced the Warriors (12-7) to commit 18 turnovers and led in points off turnovers, 18-5. Those easy buckets allowed the Eagles to still shoot an efficient 51 percent (28-for-55) from the floor.
The Eagles took their first lead on a three-point play by freshman guard
Hunter Shedenhelm just over four minutes into the game. That play gave AU a 10-8 advantage that the Eagles held for the remainder of the night.
Senior forward
Derek Koch bombed in a 3-pointer to push the advantage to 13-9 and while the Eagles were never totally comfortable against a team that had come back in the second half twice in the regular season to beat them, they were able to remain strong enough on the ball to keep Wayne State from making a run.
The Eagles committed just nine turnovers in the game and only three in the second half.
Wayne State had the margin down to four, 34-30, with 25 seconds left in the first half, but sophomore guard
Brandon Haraway made a crucial bucket just before the buzzer to push the lead to six at halftime.
The Warriors cut it down to five, 41-36, with 17:00 minutes left, but senior guard
Bo Furcron made a bucket, then freshman guard
Dylan Fasoyiro got a steal and sophomore guard
Ethan Conley finished on the other end to push it back to nine, 45-36.
Wayne State again had it down to six, 49-43, with 11:52 to play, but after a timeout, the Eagles scored the next four points through Haraway and senior wing
Aaron Thompson to make it a double-digit game.
The Eagles kept pushing after that and eventually grew their lead to as many as 18 before the final buzzer sounded.
Thompson led four AU players in double figures with 14 points and five rebounds. Haraway had 13 points, four rebounds and six assists, while Shedenhelm also had 13 points. Conley scored 10 points off the bench, Furcron had nine and Koch scored eight points.
Brailen Neely led the Warriors with 14 points, but he had no assists against five turnovers.
The Eagles will now play Sunday (March 14) at 7 p.m. ET at the Ford Center against the region's top-seeded team, Truman State. The game will air live on WRDL-FM 88.9 and on WRDLFM.com.
AU
MBB/BB
