No. 1 Eagle Women Rout Arrows, Have Won 24 Straight To Begin Season

On Thursday (Feb. 9) night in Pepper Pike, Ohio, the No. 1-ranked Ashland University women's basketball team dominated host Ursuline, 93-56.
 
The Eagles remain the only undefeated women's basketball team in NCAA Division II at 24-0 overall and 16-0 in the Great Midwest Athletic Conference, while the Arrows are 12-13, 8-9.
 
In Thursday's victory, no Ashland player played more than 23 minutes. Eleven Eagles scored, 10 had at least one assist, and 10 grabbed at least one rebound.
 
Ashland is 5-0 all-time against Ursuline. The Eagles have won 28 consecutively in the regular season, and are 19-0 all-time in Great Midwest road games.
 
WHAT HAPPENED

• Ashland wasted little time jumping out to a big lead, scoring the game's first 12 points in the first three-plus minutes. During that start, fifth-year guard Hallie Heidemann became the ninth player in program history to score 1,500 career points.
• The opening quarter ended with the Eagles sporting a 25-11 lead, and with AU making 9-of-12 from the field. Quarter No. 2 was more of the same, with Ashland going into the locker room with a 52-25 lead.
• In the first 20 minutes, the Eagles made 72.4 percent from the field (21-for-29), and had 14 assists. As usual, the distribution was impressive – nine AU players scored, seven had at least one assist, and seven grabbed at least one rebound.
• Sophomore forward Hayley Smith was 6-for-6 for 12 points in the first half.
• Ashland continued to pull away from Ursuline in the second half, taking a 75-37 lead into the final stanza.

 
THE WRAP-UP

• Smith finished with 20 points on 9-of-10 from the field, while senior forward Annie Roshak ended with a double-double (13 points, 11 rebounds), and moved into sixth place on Ashland's all-time scoring list with 1,655 points.
• Sophomore forward Zoe Miller came off the bench for 12 points on 6-of-8 shooting.
• The Eagles already led Division II in team field-goal percentage (53.0), 3-point field-goal percentage (40.9), assists per game (20.3) and scoring margin per game (plus-27.5) coming into Thursday. Against the Arrows, Ashland shot 62.3 percent from the floor and 42.1 percent from beyond the arc, had 23 assists to only eight turnovers, and won by 37 points.
• Thursday marked the 10^th time Ashland has scored at least 90 points in 2022-23.
• Defensively, the Eagles kept the Arrows to 36.2 percent from the field and 18.2 percent from the arc. Ashland also had a 33-23 rebounding margin.
• Ashland is 101-3 all-time as the top-ranked team in D-II, and 283-15 as a ranked team in D-II.

 
UP NEXT
The Eagles will go to Ohio Dominican (6-16, 3-12) on Saturday (Feb. 11) at 1 p.m.