A 20-9 fourth quarter sent the No. 2-ranked Ashland University women's basketball team to a 73-61 win at Findlay on Thursday (Dec. 1) night, in the 2022-23 Great Midwest Athletic conference opener for both teams.
The Eagles are 7-0 overall and 1-0 in the conference, and moved to 39-1 in December games since 2015, and 48-3 all-time as the No. 2-ranked team in NCAA Division II.
Findlay is 3-3, 0-1.
Ashland won its ninth consecutive game in a series, and has topped the Oilers four times in the 2022 calendar year.
WHAT HAPPENED
- Ashland scored the game's first five points, then Findlay came back with the next five. The Oilers led 17-11 in a fast-paced start to the contest, and by the end of the opening quarter, Findlay's lead was 22-18.
- Junior guard Savaya Brockington's 3-point field goal in the middle of the second quarter knotted the game at 26, then Brockington's layup at the first-half buzzer put AU ahead 36-35. Brockington and sophomore guard Morgan Yoder each scored nine points in the first two quarters.
- Brockington's layup put Ashland back on top at 43-41 inside of the six-minute mark of the third, as the Eagles kept the Oilers off the scoreboard for almost four minutes. There continued to be very little room between the two teams, but fifth-year guard Hallie Heidemann's record-breaking triple put AU ahead 53-52 in the last minute of the period.
- Heidemann broke the tie with Taylor Woods for most career 3-pointers at Ashland with her 275th, and that gave the Eagles a one-point lead going into the fourth quarter.
- Findlay scored the first five points of the final period to take a 57-53 lead, but Ashland countered with a 10-2 run to go on top by a 63-59 count going into the last six minutes of regulation. Yoder's fifth trey of the game, a career high, inside of three minutes put the Eagles up by eight points at 69-61, and they didn't look back.
THE WRAP-UP
- Not only did Yoder set a career high for 3s in a game, she also did so with 17 points and six rebounds.
- Five Eagles scored in double figures – Yoder, sophomore forward Hayley Smith (15 points), sophomore Zoe Miller (13), Brockington (11) and Heidemann (10). Smith added eight rebounds, while Miller led the team with five assists.
- Ashland made 84.2 percent from the free-throw line, while forcing 22 Oiler turnovers.
- Thursday night's game saw 12 lead changes and nine tie scores.
UP NEXT
Ashland's women will return to the Sherrill Hudson Court at Kates Gymnasium on Saturday (Dec. 3) at 1 p.m. against Tiffin (3-5, 0-1).
