It happened again.
On Saturday (Dec. 17) afternoon at the Sherrill Hudson Court at Kates Gymnasium, Ashland University's men's basketball team surrendered a late first-half run for some halftime consternation for the second time in less than two weeks – only to rebound with a strong second half and a home conference win.
The first time, it was against Walsh on Dec. 8. On Saturday, it was against Kentucky Wesleyan, resulting in a 78-69 victory, the Eagles' third in a row. Ashland is 5-4 overall and 3-1 in the Great Midwest Athletic Conference (one game out of first place), and the Panthers are 5-5, 2-2.
"I felt like it was the Walsh game all over again," said Ashland head coach
John Ellenwood. "I thought we did a good job, we just persevered, and that's a big step for this team.
"It's tough when you go from very alert the week before to exams, playing a really good basketball team. That was a great team. That was a very good victory for us. I'm happy that we got that."
WHAT HAPPENED
- A fast-break dunk from senior guard Brandon Haraway put the Eagles ahead 14-6, but the Panthers scored the game's next seven points going into the second media timeout of the first half.
- It was a 16-15 AU lead when the Eagles went on an 11-5 spurt for a seven-point lead. At that point, senior guard Ethan Conley scored 12 of Ashland's 27 points.
- Seven straight Eagle points, punctuated by another Haraway dunk, moved the AU lead to its largest lead to date at 36-23 inside of the four-minute mark. The Panthers, however, had another answer, this one in the form of 9-0 run which forced an Eagle timeout.
- By halftime, the score was tied at 40, and Conley (14 points) and freshman forward Maceo Williams (13) had 27 of AU's points. The Eagles scored 14 points on KWC's nine turnovers in the first 20 minutes.
- Trailing 47-45, the Panthers scored the next eight points to go ahead 53-47 – KWC's biggest lead to that point. Kentucky Wesleyan's lead was 60-51, but the Eagles turned in a 10-0 run of their own to take the lead back after junior center Victor Searls' triple.
- Eventually, the AU run ended at 14-0 and with the Eagles leading 65-60. The scoring pace slowed thereafter, but AU maintained its advantage, then the win was punctuated by a step-back 3 from Haraway inside of two minutes.
THE WRAP-UP
- Searls finished with a career-high 24 points on 8-of-13 shooting and 5-of-5 from the foul line, and added nine rebounds and two blocked shots. Conley scored 20 points and added seven boards.
- Williams came off the bench for 15 points, making all seven shots from the field in the process, and Haraway ended with 14 points and a career-best eight assists. Haraway moves into 18th place on the Ashland all-time scoring list with 1,208 career points.
- Not only did Haraway have a career-high eight assists, but so did freshman point guard Simon Wheeler, as the Eagles had 20 assists on 27 field goals.
- "We're passing the ball. That's something that I'm very happy with," Ellenwood said. "For us to win, we have to pass the ball."
- Ashland shot 48.2 percent from the field and 16-of-19 from the free-throw line.
UP NEXT
Ashland's men will finish the pre-Christmas portion of their schedule with a home game on Monday (Dec. 19) at 3 p.m. against Trevecca Nazarene (1-7, 0-3).
