New conference, same result.
On Saturday (March 5) afternoon at the Sherrill Hudson Court at Kates Gymnasium, the No. 4-ranked Ashland University women's basketball team outlasted No. 15 Walsh, 73-63, to clinch both the Great Midwest Athletic Conference regular-season and tournament titles for 2021-22.
"I'm really proud of our team. We've gone through a lot of ups and downs this year, and I thought that tonight, we played really tough, really together and beat a really good team. Walsh is a really good basketball team."
"It was such a fun atmosphere. The Purple Swarm really showed up tonight."
Ashland earned an automatic bid to the NCAA Division II postseason and improve to 28-2, while the Cavaliers are 26-4. This will be the Eagles' 12
th D-II tournament appearance, following 2004, 2006, 2012-13 and 2015-21.
The Eagles snapped Walsh's 18-game winning streak, which started following Ashland's 87-84 win in North Canton on New Year's Eve.
This is Ashland's eighth conference tournament championship in the last 11 seasons, having won seven of the last 10 in the Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference.
WHAT HAPPENED
- Ashland hit as many 3-point field goals in the first 2½ minutes on Saturday as it did all of the semifinal win on Friday (March 4), taking an early 6-4 lead. The Eagles extended that lead to 12-4, as the AU run was 9-0 at the first media timeout of the contest.
- The Eagles kept the Cavaliers off the scoreboard for more than five minutes, leading to a 16-10 lead after the first period. Senior forward Karlee Pireu nearly outscored Walsh by herself, posting nine points.
- Ninety seconds into the second quarter, a pair of free throws from senior guard Hallie Heidemann gave AU a 22-13 lead – its biggest to that point. Junior forward Annie Roshak made it an 11-point game at 24-13 with a layup, then Roshak hit a trey which lifted AU to a 14-point gap – and forced a Walsh timeout.
- It was an 11-0 Ashland run at that point, and the run eventually would end at 16-0 – and with the Eagles leading 32-13. Walsh whittled its deficit down to 11 later in the first half, but back-to-back Roshak layups restored order and led to a 42-25 halftime advantage.
- The Eagles shot 56.3 percent from the field in the first 20 minutes, and they kept the Cavaliers to 34.4 percent. Roshak continued her scorching scoring pace of late with 16 points, Pireu added 11 and Heidemann contributed nine – with the three of them accounting for 36 of the 42 first-half points.
- Ashland did a good job of milking the clock while trying to re-find its shooting touch to start the third quarter, and with 4:48 left in the third quarter, the Eagle lead once again was 19 points at 48-29.
- Walsh went on an 11-2 run to cut the Ashland lead to a 10 points at 50-40 inside the final minute of the third, but two Pireu free throws once again halted the Cavaliers' momentum.
- The Eagles took a 52-40 lead into the final stanza, and that score wouldn't change in the first 2:20. Heidemann changed that with a triple to put Ashland ahead by 15.
- Walsh got the game down to an 11-point gap, but again couldn't get it to a single-digit deficit, and Ashland responded with consecutive baskets for yet another 15-point advantage.
- With 2:13 remaining, Heidemann hit a triple which should have been the dagger at 64-50, but the Cavaliers scored the next six points. As was the case on Friday night, finishing for AU meant hitting at the free-throw line, and the Eagles were 3-for-4 before back-to-back layups from Heidemann and Roshak effectively ended the game.
- "The GMAC's a good conference," Heidemann said. "Making big plays down the stretch is just a testament to the hard work that we've put in, and we can trust that when we go down the wire."
THE WRAP-UP
- Heidemann ended with a team-high 21 points and added eight rebounds and four steals while drawing six fouls. She now has 1,194 career points, good for 21st on AU's all-time scoring list.
- "She was just ballin'," Pickens said. "Her defensive end just set the tone. Offensively, she played so confidently."
- Said Heidemann, "It feels great. This team has worked hard all year. It was special."
- Roshak was next in the scoring column with 19 points, and Pireu finished with 18 points and eight rebounds. In her last six conference tourney games, Roshak has scored 134 points (22.3 ppg.).
- "First year in the GMAC, to come out here and win it and avenge our loss, it was a big one for us," Roshak said.
- Said Pireu, "To go out with a regular-season and tournament championship is special. It's why I came back for my fifth year to be part of a championship team."
- Defensively, the Eagles kept the Cavaliers to 38.1 percent from the field and forced 18 Walsh turnovers.
- Ashland was 12-of-14 from the foul line, and is 51-for-55 (92.7 percent) from the charity stripe in the last four games.
- In the last 118 games at home, Ashland is 110 games over .500 (114-4).
UP NEXT
The announcement of the NCAA Division II tournament field on Sunday (March 6) at 10 p.m. on NCAA.com.
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