Almost nine months ago, Ashland University's men's basketball team trailed Malone by 14 points inside of the 6:30 mark of the second half in the 2023 Great Midwest Athletic Conference Tournament championship game - but came out with an 82-78 victory.
Fast forward to Thursday (Nov. 30) night at the Sherrill Hudson Court at Kates Gymnasium, and the No. 12-ranked Eagles allowed 12 consecutive points to the Pioneers to begin the second half, then rallied for an 82-77 victory in the first conference game for both teams in 2023-24.
"They came and just hit a bunch of threes on us," said Ashland head coach
John Ellenwood. "We had to make adjustments to make sure that we kind of got them out of rhythm. I'm proud of our guys, our grit."
Ashland is 5-0 overall and 1-0 in the Great Midwest, and Malone is 5-2, 0-1. The Eagles have won eight of the last 10 games in the series.
An early 4-4 tie became an 8-5 Eagle lead at the first media timeout. A 12-7 Ashland advantage was cut to 14-13 at the game's second media stoppage, then the Pioneers scored the next four points out of the break to go ahead.
The Eagles responded with a 5-0 spurt to regain the lead at 19-17, but the back-and-forth continued with Malone posting four straight. By halftime, the two teams were knotted at 38 – as Ashland hit 56.7 percent from the field and turned five Pioneer turnovers into 10 points.
Sophomore point guard
Simon Wheeler stuffed the stat sheet with 14 points, three rebounds, four assists and two steals in the first half.
Malone hit four consecutive 3-point field goals to start the second half, then the Eagles started their comeback. Wheeler scored eight points in the first five-plus minutes of the half to help Ashland get back to within six points at 52-46, then a Wheeler triple made it 52-49 with 14 minutes left in regulation.
Ashland kept coming, and once Wheeler's steal and layup were converted, the Eagles led 53-52 – forcing a Malone timeout.
Wheeler had a career-high 29 points with 10 minutes to go – giving AU a 56-54 lead. By the time Wheeler converted a reverse layup, the Eagles had a 62-56 advantage – which led to another Malone stoppage.
Sophomore forward
Maceo Williams made a pair of free throws at the 5:41 mark to give the Eagles their first double-digit lead of the contest at 66-56, but the Pioneers scored five in a row to cut their deficit in half.
Senior center
Victor Searls' put-back made it a 70-64 Eagle lead, then Wheeler's jumper made it an eight-point game. With 1:26 left, Williams went back to the line, made two, and lifted AU to a 74-67 spread.
Williams' layup countered Malone's trey, and with 51.7 seconds to go, Ashland led 76-70. Wheeler made four charity tosses to make it an 80-70 lead – which allowed the Eagles to withstand a 7-0 Pioneer spurt at the end.
POST-GAME NUGGETS
- Wheeler scored a career-high 39 points on 12-of-20 shooting from the field and 14-of-15 from the free-throw line, and added six rebounds, six assists and four steals.
- "He had some great games for us last year," Ellenwood noted. "He's had to really big scoring games. It's just something where, we're a team, and tonight was his night. I was very proud of him."
- "I just honestly wanted to be myself and be a leader, and it turned out victorious for us," Wheeler said, who pointed out the difference between starting 1-0 in the league and starting 0-1. "It makes a difference in March, I can tell you that much."
- Williams added 17 points, and Searls collected a dozen points to go with seven rebounds.
- The Eagles were 22-of-25 from the charity stripe, negating Malone's 14-of-32 showing from beyond the arc.
- "The highest-percentage shot in the game is a free throw, so I'd rather make more free throws, to be honest," Ellenwood said.
- There were nine tie scores and nine lead changes on Thursday night.
UP NEXT
A Great Midwest road game between two Top 25 teams on Saturday (Dec. 2) at 3 p.m. at No. 25 Walsh (3-0, 1-0).
