An all-around strong game on Saturday (Jan. 25) afternoon led Ashland University's men's basketball team to a 97-68 win against Lake Erie at the Sherrill Hudson Court at Kates Gymnasium.
The Eagles, now alone in fourth place in the Great Midwest Athletic Conference standings, move to 11-7 overall and 7-4 in the league after fifth win in the last six games. The Storm is 13-6, 6-5.
"I think our guys did a good job of rebounding," said Ashland head coach
John Ellenwood. "We had 20 assists, and a lot of that comes from their pressure. I thought we did a good job just taking care of the basketball.
"We didn't give them really easy points in the half-court like we did last time. I think our guys just responded well."
At the game's first media timeout, the Storm led 8-5. Ashland worked the game back to even at 11 after a layup from sophomore wing
Cooper Davis, then back to 17-all on back-to-back layups from sophomore wing
Aden Gregory.
Gregory's long jumper put AU ahead 19-18, and his floating layup drew his team back to even at 21-21 – which started a 12-0 run which put the Eagles ahead 31-21, and ended on a 3-point field goal from sophomore wing
Carter Valentine.
Lake Erie got to within five points at 33-28, but before and after the last media stoppage of the first half, junior forward
Maceo Williams put a stop to the Storm's momentum with a fast-break layup, then Gregory knocked down a corner 3 to go back up by 10 at 38-28.
At the half, thanks to five consecutive field goals all being triples, the Eagles led 50-31. By the break, Ashland already had three double-digit scorers – Williams (11 points), Gregory (11 points) and Davis (10 points) – and nearly had a fourth, as junior point guard
Jaron Crews added nine points.
A Davis corner trey outside of the 17-minute mark gave the Eagles their largest lead to date at 57-35, then Crews' fadeaway jumper and freshman forward
Jason Moore's layup put the lead at 26 points.
Ashland eventually led 69-40, but the Storm began to chip away at their deficit, getting to 71-53 at the 9:38 mark. The Eagles continued to keep Lake Erie at more than arm's length en route to victory.
EVERYONE CONTRIBUTED…AND THE REST OF THE STORY
- Davis finished with a career-high 28 points in 26 minutes.
- "I think our team really feeds off Cooper," Ellenwood said. "He's not scared of the moment. Today was his day."
- Said Davis, who is averaging 18.4 points over the last five contests, "Just being aggressive. My coaches and teammates put me in position to win and play great. We're moving a lot better on offense. We knew it was going to be a battle from the start."
- Williams (17 points, 12 rebounds), Crews (13 points), Gregory (13 points) and Valentine (11 points) all scored in double figures.
- "We've got to keep building those (bench) guys and getting them confident, not just for this year but for the future," Ellenwood said.
- Ashland finished shooting 59.7 percent from the field and 46.7 percent from beyond the arc, while keeping the Storm to 32.4 percent from the floor and 23.1 percent from downtown.
- The Eagles, after making 15 triples on Tuesday (Jan. 21) at Ohio Dominican, made 14 in Saturday's victory.
- Ashland improves to 33-4 all-time vs. Lake Erie.
UP NEXT
A week before the next game on Feb. 1 at 3 p.m. at home vs. Thomas More (12-7, 7-5).
