WESTVILLE, Ind. – One last time – Ashland University's women's basketball team is playing in the Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference Tournament championship game.
On Friday (March 5) night at Purdue Northwest, the Eagles defeated Parkside, 93-74, in a semifinal to give them a chance to win a sixth consecutive GLIAC tournament championship. Ashland's sixth straight win puts it at 14-7, heading into the title game on Sunday (March 7) at noon Central/1 p.m. East against top-seeded Michigan Tech (19-1).
"I am so proud of this team," said Ashland head coach
Kari Pickens. "The amount of growth that they have shown in the last two weeks has been tremendous. They're all in. I thought tonight was a testament to that. It was a fun game. It was a really fun game."
This will be Ashland's seventh straight appearance, and 13
th overall, in the GLIAC Tournament title game. The Eagles will take an 18-game conference tourney winning streak into Sunday's matchup with a team they did not play during the 2020-21 regular season.
"It's exciting. It almost feels like an NCAA Tournament game," said Pickens of playing a team for the first time this late in the season. "We've seen them from afar on film, but they're an outstanding defensive team. We have to be able to execute on both ends of the floor for 40 minutes."
Sophomore forward
Annie Roshak was one of the Eagles' standouts on Friday night, setting a new program GLIAC Tournament single-game record with 40 points – two shy of the overall program record of 42 set by
Amber Rall against Mercyhurst on Jan. 6, 2007.
In the last five quarters of play, Roshak has scored 60 points.
"Today was just so much fun," Roshak said. "We're putting it together. We knew that we could go inside a lot today to me and KP (senior forward
Karlee Pireu), so we were focused on not fading and finishing through."
Neither team had a lead larger than four points in the opening quarter, and at the end of a period which saw six lead changes and six ties, a last-second driving layup from freshman guard
Sydney Jacobsen gave the Eagles a 19-18 lead.
In that opening stanza, Roshak picked up where she left off in the fourth quarter on Thursday (March 4) night. After scoring 20 points in the fourth the night before, Roshak posted 10 points in the first 10 minutes on Friday night.
There was no more breathing room between the two teams in the second quarter, either. The score was tied at 30 at the media timeout, but by halftime, Ashland found a little bit of separation at 39-34. Roshak had 19 points at the break, and the Eagles shot 50.0 percent to the Rangers' 37.0 percent.
Ashland led 43-36 early in the third, but Parkside (11-10) wasn't about to go quietly. The Rangers whittled their deficit down to 47-46 four minutes into the third, but Roshak countered with her 24
th and 25
th points of the game on a layup to put the lead back to three points. A short time later, Pireu's old-fashioned 3-pointer made it a 52-46 contest.
The Eagles had their largest lead of the game to that point at 64-54 until Parkside made a last-second triple to end the third quarter, and Roshak went into the final period with 29 points.
That Ranger make didn't matter, however, as Ashland outscored Parkside 18-8 in the first 6:15 of the fourth quarter to pull away and seal the victory.
Pireu scored 22 points on 9-of-11 shooting from the field, and added six rebounds and four steals.
"Our guards are just shooting the ball and stepping on to the floor more confidently," Pireu said. "Their confidence has allowed our inside-out game to excel."
Junior guard
Hallie Heidemann added 10 points, five rebounds and six assists, as Ashland shot 64.9 percent from the field in the game, and made 23-of-29 (79.3 percent) in the second half.
For Parkside, Alyssa Nelson scored 31 points, and Hannah Plockelman added 25.
This is the third consecutive year the Eagles have eliminated the Rangers in the GLIAC Tournament.
AU
WBKB/DS
