Establishing NCAA Division II records is nothing new for Ashland University's women's basketball team.
It happened again on Saturday (Jan. 6) afternoon at Kentucky Wesleyan, as the No. 2-ranked Eagles won their 33
rd consecutive road game, 65-47, to break a tie with Saint Rose for the most in a row in D-II women's hoops history.
Ashland improves to 12-1 overall and 5-0 in the Great Midwest Athletic Conference, and remains alone atop the league standings. The Panthers are 9-3, 4-2.
The Eagles' road win streak began on Dec. 2, 2021 at Ohio Dominican. The road win streak standard goes alongside Ashland's D-II women's basketball record of 73 consecutive wins overall.
Ashland jumped out to a 9-2 lead, as the Panthers missed their first four shots from the field and turned the ball over three times – leading to five of those AU points. An old-fashioned 3-point play and a modern triple from fifth-year forward
Annie Roshak extended that advantage to 19-5, and by the time the first quarter came to an end, the Eagles' 15-6 run made it a 24-11 game.
At 31-11 early in the second quarter, the Eagles had their first lead of 20 points. The halftime score was 38-23 in favor of Ashland – thanks to a first 20 minutes in which it kept KWC to 29.6 percent from the field and forced 10 turnovers.
Also in the first half, seven Eagles scored, seven had at least one rebound, seven had at least one assist, and seven had at least one steal.
The Panthers scored the first seven points of the second half to cut their deficit to eight, but Ashland had the answer in the form of a 10-0 run of its own for a 48-30 lead outside of the four-minute mark in the third quarter.
Ashland's lead was 55-39 going into the final stanza, and the Eagles kept the Panthers off the board for almost the entire first half of the fourth quarter en route to victory.
POST-GAME NUGGETS
- Senior guard Macy Spielman came off the bench to score a game-high and season-high 14 points on 7-of-8 from the field in 19 minutes. Roshak added 13 points in the victory.
- The Eagles had a 40-29 rebounding advantage, with junior forward Hayley Smith grabbing 11 caroms for her fifth double digit-rebound game of 2023-24.
- Eight AU players scored, nine grabbed at least one rebound, nine had at least one assist and seven pilfered at least one steal.
- Ashland's win on Saturday was its 308th all-time as a ranked team in NCAA Division II (308-19), and 56th as the No. 2 team in the country (56-3).
UP NEXT
Back on the road for another Great Midwest game at Tiffin (4-10, 2-4) on Thursday (Jan. 11) at 5:30 p.m.
