BACK TO THE ELITE EIGHT! No. 1 AU Women Win Home Slugfest Against GVSU

Five years was too long for the No. 1-ranked Ashland University women's basketball team to be away from the NCAA Division II Elite Eight.
 
The Eagles fixed that on Monday (March 13) night in front of a sellout crowd at the Sherrill Hudson Court at Kates Gymnasium, defeating No. 5-ranked Grand Valley State, 61-58, in a D-II Midwest Regional Tournament championship game. Ashland is 34-0, and will go to the Elite Eight in St. Joseph, Mo., starting on March 20.
 
GVSU's season ends at 31-3.
 
Ashland is 5-2 all-time in Midwest Regional title games, and 5-0 all-time in home Midwest Regional title games. In all four of the previous instances when the Eagles won a regional at home, they went on to the national championship game, winning it all in 2013 and 2017.
 
Monday night was the first time in five all-time NCAA postseason meetings that Ashland and GVSU played in a regional title game.
 
At the first media timeout of the game, Ashland led 10-8 – and there was no more room than four points between the two teams in the first 5:03. The Lakers didn't score in the last 5:39 of the opening quarter, allowing the Eagles to take a 12-8 lead into the next period despite hitting 4-of-11 from the field and turning the ball over five times.
 
Junior guard Savaya Brockington had seven of AU's 12 points in the first 10 minutes.
 
Grand Valley scored the first five points of the second quarter to take the lead, and the back-and-forth continued. The Lakers had the advantage at the second media stoppage at 19-17, and they upped that lead to 24-17 after the break.
 
The Lakers led 26-18 late in the first half, and while Ashland scored five in a row, a 3-point field goal at the buzzer gave GVSU a 29-23 lead going into the locker room. The Eagles, who trailed at the half for just the third time all season, made 32.0 percent in the first half, and 4-of-14 from beyond the arc.
 
Brockington converted an old-fashioned 3-point play to begin the second half, giving her 13 points and chopping AU's deficit down to 29-26. Fifth-year guard Maddie Maloney's modern triple tied the game at 29, forcing a Laker timeout, then Maloney made another trey to put AU ahead, 32-29.
 
By the under-5 media timeout in the third, the Eagles had outscored the Lakers 14-4 in the period – and led 37-33 overall. Ashland pushed its lead to 42-33, and led 45-38 heading into the fourth quarter – thanks to hitting 5-of-8 from downtown in the third.
 
The Lakers cut their deficit down to four points at 51-47 when an Ashland timeout resulted in the game's final media timeout, then to 51-49 out of the stoppage. Sophomore forward Zoe Miller stopped the GVSU momentum with 5:28 to go with a layup, then senior forward Annie Roshak did the same with a layup outside of the 4:30 mark.
 
Leading 55-51, the Eagles needed to extend their lead and pull away, and Roshak obliged with another layup. Ashland got the ball back leading 57-53 with less than three minutes to play when another layup was followed by a Laker turnover.
 
With 63 seconds to play, Grand Valley converted all three charity tosses to cut AU's lead in half. An Ashland miss gave the Lakers the ball back with 33.4 seconds to go following a timeout, and, following a Grand Valley miss, rebound and another timeout, a Laker basket made it a 59-58 game with 12.6 seconds to play.
 
Junior guard Macy Spielman went to the line with 11.0 seconds left to try to give Ashland a three-point lead, and she did. The Lakers' last-second triple was short, and the rebound went to the Eagles with 0.6 ticks left.
 
NOTABLES

• Brockington finished with a team-high 17 points, Roshak added 14 points and six rebounds, and Maloney and Heidemann each chipped in with 10 points and 10 rebounds.
• Heidemann, who tied the program record on Monday with her 150^th career game, was named the tournament's Most Outstanding Player, and Roshak was named to the all-tournament team.
• The Eagles are 34-0 to start the season for the third time in program history. Ashland won the national title in 2017, and lost it in 2018.
• Ashland is 26-20 all-time against Grand Valley State – and 4-1 in NCAA postseason meetings.
• The Eagles and Lakers were the only teams to be No. 1 in the Women's Basketball Coaches Association (WBCA) Division II Coaches Poll in 2022-23 to this point. GVSU was No. 1 in the first six polls, and Ashland has been No. 1 in the last 10 polls.
• Ashland is 32-9 all-time in NCAA postseason play, and 17-2 all-time at home.
• The Eagles are 111-3 all-time as the No. 1 team in D-II, and 293-18 all-time as a ranked team in D-II.
• Ashland head coach Kari Pickens is 139-15 (.903) guiding the Eagles. She is one of only two NCAA women's basketball head coaches at all levels to have a career winning percentage of .900 or better, with at least 150 games coached (Thomas More's Jeff Hans, .908).

 
QUOTABLES

• "At halftime, we talked about how we were going to win this game one possession at a time," said Pickens. "We have to play together, and I thought they did that from start to finish in that second half."
• "I'm so proud of them. They played really selflessly, really together," Pickens said. "I couldn't be more proud of my team coming out on top."
• "This team is full of great players," Heidemann said. "Everybody can step up and make a play. I'm so proud of Savaya tonight."
• "Just trying to do what the team needed," Brockington said. "We knew we had to step up all across the board, and that's what we did. It was a rough start. In the second half, we turned it up, and everybody stepped up."