The No. 7-ranked Ashland University women's basketball team trailed by 14 in the second quarter of Thursday (Feb. 27) night's Great Midwest Athletic Conference home game vs. Findlay, but rallied for a 64-47 win in the next-to-last regular-season contest of 2024-25.
A 20
th consecutive victory puts the Eagles at 26-3 overall and 18-1 in the league, and extends their NCAA Division II-best home winning streak to 27 games. The Oilers are 19-9, 12-7.
"I am really proud of our team," said Ashland head coach
Kari Pickens. "We didn't play to the maximum of our potential, but we found a way to win. And we found a way to beat a really good team pretty soundly by the end.
"It was a one-possession-at-a-time thing."
Ashland also has won 15 straight match-ups with Findlay.
The first 6½ minutes of the game saw three lead changes and three ties – and had Findlay leading 10-9. Going into the second quarter, the Oilers led 13-9 – an advantage which went to 25-11 with 6½ minutes left in the new stanza.
Trailing 27-13, Ashland began its rally. An old-fashioned 3-point play from forward
Hayley Smith, followed by a modern trey from senior guard
Morgan Yoder, worked the deficit to eight points. A put-back 3-point play by senior forward
Sarah McKee made it a six-point contest at 28-22.
At the half, the Oilers' lead stood at 30-23, as the Eagles made 28.1 percent from the field and 2-of-11 from 3-point range in the first 20 minutes. For just the fifth time all season, Ashland trailed going into the third quarter.
Freshman point guard
Ashley Mullet's triple cut the Eagle deficit in half to 34-31, then senior forward
Zoe Miller's 3 at the top of the circle pulled AU back to even.
Another Miller 3-pointer at the top gave Ashland its first lead since late in the first quarter at 37-36, and after another Mullet trey and a Miller and-1, the Eagles led 44-38.
Ashland outscored Findlay by a 23-10 count in the third period, and took a 46-40 lead into the fourth.
The Eagles' first double-digit advantage came at 50-40 early in the fourth quarter, and they went on to victory from there.
TURNOVERS INTO POINTS…AND THE REST OF THE STORY
- Ashland forced 21 turnovers, and converted those into 22 points.
- Miller finished with a game-high 18 points, and added seven rebounds and three steals.
- Smith and Yoder each ended with 11 points, and Smith added nine rebounds.
- Miller now has 1,327 career points, 14th on AU's all-time list. Smith has 1,322 career points, ranking 15th.
- "I'm just so proud of this team, but especially our seniors," Pickens said. "Our five seniors have just carried this team through the highs and lows of every single game this year."
- The Eagles kept the Oilers to 35.4-percent shooting from the field, including 4-of-20 in the second half.
- Ashland is 330 games above .500 (353-23) as a ranked team all-time.
UP NEXT
The regular-season finale on Saturday (March 1) at 1 p.m. at Walsh (9-18, 4-15).
