The home court was the cure for what temporarily ailed Ashland University's men's basketball team, as, on Saturday (Jan. 28) afternoon, the Eagles stopped a modest two-game losing streak with a 74-61 win over Tiffin at the Sherrill Hudson Court at Kates Gymnasium.
Improving to 9-0 at home this season, Ashland moved to 13-7 overall and 9-4 in the Great Midwest Athletic Conference, while the Dragons are 8-11, 6-6.
"Every league game counts the same," said Ashland head coach
John Ellenwood. "Just winning and holding our home court and splitting with them is what we needed to do. It's good to learn through a victory, rather than those losses that we had."
WHAT HAPPENED
- An early 7-2 deficit for the Eagles turned into an 8-7 Ashland advantage. Thanks to junior center Victor Searls' 10 early points, the Eagles led 13-12 with 12:23 left until halftime.
- There were eight lead changes and two ties in the game's first 10 minutes, then Ashland pulled away to a 26-18 lead, forcing a Dragons timeout. By halftime, the Eagles' run was 25-4, and their lead was 20 points at 41-21.
- In the first 20 minutes, Tiffin was held to 27.6 percent from the field, while Ashland hit 51.5 percent. Searls had 14 points and five rebounds in the first half.
- The Eagle advantage still was 20 points at 45-25 at the first media timeout of the second half, but the Dragons cut that deficit to 13 points at 51-38 with 10:22 remaining in regulation.
- Ashland, however, two days after having a 15-point second-half lead at Malone and losing, finished off the victory on Saturday by keeping Tiffin from cutting AU's lead to single digits until the last three minutes.
- "We let two slip away that we really should have won," Searls said. "It felt good to come together as a team and focus on defense."
THE WRAP-UP
- Searls ended the afternoon with a game-high 20 points on 9-of-13 shooting, and added seven rebounds. In the last four games, Searls has made 32 of his 42 field-goal attempts (76.2 percent).
- "This is like my first time playing a full season in three years, basically," Searls noted. "I've just been trying to be more aggressive in practice, and I think it's been translating into the game."
- "He's gotten a lot better, just getting himself in positions where he can score it," Ellenwood said. "Vic seems to figure out stuff as the game goes on, and he's become a lot more intelligent."
- Senior guard Brandon Haraway scored 16 points and was 8-for-8 from the free-throw line despite playing hurt. He now has 1,358 career points, moving him up two spots to 14th on Ashland's all-time scoring list.
- "He's playing through a lot of pain, and he's a great leader," said Ellenwood.
- Senior forward Ethan Conley rounded out the Eagle double-digit scorers with 10 points.
- Ashland out-rebounded Tiffin, 37-32, thanks to redshirt freshman forward Maceo Williams' 10 caroms. Freshman point guard Simon Wheeler dished out nine assists, giving him 21 for the week.
- Defensively, the Eagles kept the Dragons to 39.0 percent from the field and 31.0 percent from 3-point range, and forced 14 turnovers – resulting in 16 AU points.
UP NEXT
Ashland will go back on the road to take on conference front-runner Hillsdale on Thursday (Feb. 2) at 7:30 p.m.
