Basketball is a funny game.
Playing in a NCAA Division II Final Four game, a team which turned the ball over 26 times and made 9-of-19 from the free-throw line normally wouldn't be on the winning side. The No. 1-ranked Ashland University women's basketball team, however, was on the winning side of a 76-67 score against No. 4-ranked and defending national champ Glenville State on Wednesday (March 22) night in St. Joseph, Mo.
The Eagles, now 36-0, will take on No. 6-ranked Minnesota Duluth (32-3), a 70-59 winner over No. 20-ranked Catawba (29-6) on Wednesday night, for the D-II title on April 1 at 3:30 p.m. East in Dallas, Texas.
Glenville State's season ends at 33-3.
Ashland overcame turnovers and missed free throws with a 49.2 field-goal percentage, an impressive 52-32 rebounding margin and a defense which kept the Pioneers to 34.3 percent from the field and 29.2 percent from 3-point range.
Wednesday night's game was a matchup of three of the last nine NCAA Division II women's basketball national champions – Ashland in 2013 and 2017, and Glenville State in 2022.
The Eagles' 36 wins mark the fourth time in program history they have won at least that many games. No other D-II women's basketball program has more than one such season.
As anticipated, there wasn't much wiggle room between the Eagles and Pioneers early on – and the teams were tied at 10 at the first-quarter media timeout. At the end of the opening quarter, Ashland became the first team in the game with a lead of more than two points, and led 17-14.
In the first 10 minutes, the Eagles turned the ball over eight times and were 0-for-4 from the free-throw line, but the AU defense stood tall, keeping Glenville to 6-of-21 from the field and 2-of-8 from the 3-point arc.
Glenville led 14-12 at one point in the first quarter. Ashland finished off a 13-2 run early in the second period to pull away and lead 25-16, and then the Eagles had the first double-digit advantage at 32-22. When sophomore point guard
Morgan Yoder hit a deep triple, AU led 35-22 with less than 3:30 to go until halftime.
By the break, the Eagles withstood a short Glenville run, and went into the locker room leading 41-27. Ashland doubled up the Pioneers on rebounds in the first half, 28-14, shot 56.3 percent from the field and kept Glenville to 28.6 percent from the floor.
In the first two quarters, sophomore forward
Hayley Smith had eight points and five rebounds in nine minutes, junior guard
Savaya Brockington collected eight points, five assists, two rebounds and two steals, and senior forward
Annie Roshak added six points and seven rebounds.
To begin the third quarter, the Eagles beat the Pioneers at their own steals game, leading to a 20-point advantage at 47-27. At the third-quarter media timeout, Ashland continued to have a comfortable lead at 49-32.
From the point of the 20-point AU lead to the end of the third quarter, Glenville outscored the Eagles 17-6, but Ashland went into the final period up 53-44. Through 30 minutes, both Smith (12 points, 10 rebounds) and Roshak (10 points, 10 rebounds) had double-doubles.
Fifth-year guard
Hallie Heidemann's triple stopped Glenville's early-fourth momentum and left Ashland with a 60-49 lead with eight minutes to go. The Pioneers kept coming, however, and AU's lead was 62-56 going into the last five minutes.
A put-back cut the Ashland lead to 62-58, and after sophomore forward
Zoe Miller's layup, a Pioneers triple left the score at 64-61 in favor of AU. Brockington split a pair of free throws for a four-point Eagle lead, then a jumper cut Glenville's deficit to a bucket at 65-63 as the two-minute mark approached.
Brockington's reverse layup made it a four-point game again, then Roshak's fast-break layup made the cushion six points at 69-63 when Glenville called a timeout at the 1:49 mark. The score remained the same for more than a minute, until the Pioneers split two charity tosses. Brockington did the same, making it a 70-64 AU advantage with 41.7 ticks to go – and Glenville got no closer than five points the rest of the way.
NOTABLES
- Roshak ended with 17 points and 10 rebounds, Brockington filled the stat sheet with 16 points, five rebounds, six assists and three steals, Smith collected a career-high 16 rebounds to go with 15 points, and Heidemann ended with 13 points, eight assists, eight rebounds and three steals.
- The Eagles finished with a decided 52-32 rebounding advantage.
- Ashland will play in its fifth D-II championship game. The Eagles are 12-2 all-time at the Elite Eight, and 34-9 all-time in NCAA postseason games, and won national titles in 2013 and 2017.
- The Eagles' 36-game winning streak is the program's second-longest all-time (NCAA Division II record 73-game streak from Nov. 11, 2016-March 21, 2018), and is the ninth-longest streak in D-II women's basketball history.
- Ashland is 110 games over .500 (113-3) as the No. 1 team in the country, and 295-18 as a ranked team.
QUOTABLES
- "I'm thankful we have a week," said Ashland head coach Kari Pickens, who has the chance to become the first woman in D-II history to win national basketball championships as a player, assistant coach and head coach. "Minnesota Duluth is a great team. It's going to be a battle for us. But we have a really, really good team. A really deep team, so I'm excited for the challenge."
- "A lot of our turnovers were in the half-court," noted Pickens. "Savaya, she's just a playmaker. She is a one-woman press break. They have 27 forced turnovers per game, and we were at 26. Our guards on the back side were mobile, and when we were able to get in the half-court offense, we did a great job of getting high-percentage shots."
