The men's basketball teams from Ashland University and Findlay have played each other 98 times.
 
One would be hard-pressed to come up with a better game in the previous 97 than the one on Thursday (Feb. 27) night at the Sherrill Hudson Court at Kates Gymnasium. The Eagles held off the No. 12-ranked Oilers, 76-69, to improve to 15-11 overall and 11-8 in the Great Midwest Athletic Conference.
 
"Toughness," said Ashland head coach John Ellenwood. "We needed rebounds, we needed stops, take away threes and make free throws. We made winning plays.
 
"We've got great momentum going into this weekend, and we need to keep it going. It's one game in this league, but for us, it's a confidence-booster."
 
With the victory, Ashland has won at least 15 games in a program-record 11 consecutive seasons.
 
The Oilers are 23-4, 16-3.
 
An early 6-2 UF lead turned into an 8-6 AU lead. At the first media timeout of the contest, the Oilers led 11-8 – as all eight of the Eagles' points came from big men (junior forward Maceo Williams six, freshman forward Jason Moore two).
 
Findlay led by double figures at 22-12 halfway through the first half, but Ashland responded with a 7-0 spurt to cut the deficit to three points. The Eagles kept chipping away, and eventually, following a layup from sophomore wing Aden Gregory, tied the game at 24.
 
The Oilers, however, sported a 35-29 lead at the last media stoppage of the first half. When the first 20 minutes came to a close, thanks to a late four-point play from Gregory, the Eagle deficit was a single point at 39-38.
 
Another Gregory bucket, a mid-range jumper, re-tied the game at 43 outside of the 15-minute mark in the second half. Gregory then made a turn-around jumper in the lane to give AU a 45-43 lead.
 
Back and forth the two teams went, and when sophomore wing Cooper Davis converted an old-fashioned 3-point play, the game was tied again at 48. And then, consecutive dunks from Williams and senior wing Stefan Stanic put the Eagles back on top at 52-49.
 
Moore's second-chance basket gave Ashland its largest lead at 56-51, but Findlay came back to take the lead at 58-57 with more than seven minutes left. After an Oiler layup, their lead was 62-59 at the 5:33 mark.
 
The margin was razor-thin at 64-63 in Findlay's favor at the last media timeout of the game. With 3:30 on the clock, Williams made 1-of-2 from the line for another tie score at 64.
 
Gregory's triple at the top of the circle with three minutes left put AU ahead 67-65, then the game was tied for a seventh time after two Oiler charity tosses. Then, with two minutes to play, Davis' fast-break trey gave Ashland the lead yet again.
 
Williams went to the line to restore the lead to three points, and did so with 70 seconds on the clock. Findlay missed the next shot, and Ashland had a chance to close the game out – and Williams did with a layup with 15 ticks left.
 
MANY EAGLE CONTRIBUTORS…AND THE REST OF THE STORY

• Williams finished with a game-high 27 points, and added seven rebounds, two assists and a block. He now has 1,333 career points – 17^th on AU's all-time scoring list.
• "We know when we play our best like we did today, we can beat anybody," said Williams. "It's a team win. I'm so proud of my guys. It feels good to win like that. That was one of the most physical games I've ever been in."
• Gregory came off the bench for 17 points, six rebounds, three assists and a steal, while Davis ended with 11 points.
• Stanic collected a game-high 10 rebounds to go with four points, a block and a steal.
• "Stef is a warrior. Nobody wants him on them," Ellenwood said. "He would be on an all-defense team, without a doubt."
• Said Stanic, "We've got the momentum now. It was awesome. I thought we played really good defense, really physical. We just played really hard."
• Ashland made 50.9 percent from the field, 47.1 percent from beyond the arc and 71.4 percent from the charity stripe.
• The Eagles kept the Oilers to 40.6 percent from the floor and 29.4 percent from 3-point range.

UP NEXT
The regular-season finale on Saturday (March 1) at 3 p.m. at Walsh (10-15, 6-13).