It's rare to see an important non-conference regional game played in the week between Christmas and New Year's Day.
The women's basketball teams from No. 2-ranked Ashland University and Michigan Tech played such a game on Thursday (Dec. 29) night at the Sherrill Hudson Court at Kates Gymnasium, with the Eagles fashioning a 77-49 victory over the Huskies.
"Michigan Tech is an incredibly well-coached team with a lot of talent," noted Ashland head coach
Kari Pickens. "I think they are going to have a great season. I was proud of how well we came out and performed for 40 minutes, and how purposeful we were from start to finish.
"I thought that we executed really, really well."
Ashland moves to 13-0 overall, and continues to be one of only eight undefeated women's basketball teams remaining in NCAA Division II. Michigan Tech is 10-3.
A notable milestone coming out of Thursday night's game was senior forward
Annie Roshak becoming just the eighth player in program history to reach 1,500 career points. Roshak scored a game-high 16 points to finish the night with 1,503 for her career.
WHAT HAPPENED
- The inside game was working early for the Eagles, as Roshak (four points) and sophomore forward Hayley Smith (three) put AU ahead 7-2. Coming out of the first-quarter media timeout, Ashland scored the next six points to go up 16-6.
- At the end of the first quarter, the Eagles led 20-14, thanks to an 11-4 rebounding margin and an 8-for-14 effort from the field in the first 10 minutes.
- Ashland took its largest lead to that point at 31-19 prior to the second-quarter media stoppage, and by halftime, the Eagles sported a 41-24 lead, keeping the Huskies to 33.3-percent shooting from the floor in the second period and outrebounding them 21-9 for entirety of the first half.
- The Eagles went into the third-quarter media timeout with their largest advantage at 49-30, then Roshak's long-range layup put AU ahead by at least 20 for the first time on the night.
- Ashland went into the final period leading 63-35 after scoring the quarter's last seven points, sealing the victory.
THE WRAP-UP
- Sophomore forward Zoe Miller came off the bench to also score in double digits for AU, finishing with 15 points and a team-high-tying eight rebounds. Despite starting just four games and being sixth on the team in points per game so far in 2022-23, Miller is the team's second-leading scorer at 13.5 ppg.
- "She's been really coachable," Pickens said. "I've been proud of her. She's started, she's come off the bench, she's played a variety of different roles. Zoe's always ready for whatever we've asked her to do."
- The Eagles shot an even 50.0 from the field in the victory, as well as 41.7 percent from 3-point range and 81.3 percent from the free-throw line.
- Defensively, Tech was kept to 31.7 percent from the floor and 5-of-25 from downtown. The Huskies turned the ball over 15 times, leading to 20 AU points. Ashland has kept five of its last six opponents to a field-goal percentage of 33.9 or lower.
- "The girls have been incredibly bought in with just what we're asking them to do," said Pickens.
- On the boards, the Eagles led 42-31.
- Ashland is 52-3 all-time as the No. 2-ranked team in Division II.
- The Eagles are 10-1 in the last 11 outings against the Huskies.
UP NEXT
Ashland will end 2022 with a trip to West Liberty (6-4) for the last non-conference regular-season game of the season on Saturday (Dec. 31) at 2 p.m.
