Junior forward
Maceo Williams' rim-rattling basket as time expired on Sunday (Nov. 10) afternoon lifted Ashland University's men's basketball team to a 68-66 win at Grand Valley State in the Eagles' season opener.
Ashland has topped the Lakers (1-1) three consecutive times in the series – by four, one and two points.
An early 9-3 Eagle lead turned into a 12-11 Laker advantage. Ashland scored six points in a row to retake the lead by five, and the lead was 25-18 at the under-8 media timeout.
In a first half which was filled with both fouls (23 combined) and free-throw attempts (35 combined), the Eagles and Lakers played to a 35-35 draw going into the locker room. Williams (13 points, seven rebounds, 6-of-10 from the field) and sophomore guard
Cooper Davis (11 points, 8-of-10 from the free-throw line) made up most of AU's offense in the first 20 minutes.
Grand Valley State worked its way to a 50-45 lead early in the second half, then Ashland went on a 5-0 spurt to pull the game even at 50. Back and forth the Eagles and Lakers went, until Ashland's 7-0 run put it on top at 59-54 inside of the 6:30 mark.
The Lakers knotted the game at 64 going into the final minute of regulation, then Williams made both free throws with 37 seconds to go to put Ashland back in the lead. GVSU missed two shots but got a third chance to either tie or take the lead in the waning seconds, then after an Eagle foul, the Lakers connected on both charity tosses with four seconds remaining to make it a tie contest – setting up Williams' heroics.
A DOUBLE-DOUBLE TO START THE SEASON…AND THE REST OF THE STORY
- Williams finished with 22 points and 12 rebounds, while Davis hit 10-of-12 free throws to end with 15 points.
- Ashland made 46.0 percent from the field, and 52 percent in the second half. The Eagles kept the Lakers to 12.5 percent (3-of-24) from 3-point range.
- There were a combined 43 fouls and 52 free-throw attempts in the contest.
UP NEXT
The start of the Ashland University Classic on Saturday (Nov. 16) at 5:30 p.m. vs. Miami-Middletown.
