ASHLAND – With 5:08 left in the game Sunday afternoon, the Ashland University women’s basketball team found themselves in a very unfamiliar position: behind by 5 points.
Less than 20 seconds later, senior guard Alex Henning knocked down a 3-pointer from the corner to cut the lead to 2 and start the Eagles on a 19-5 run to end the game as Ashland topped Grand Valley State 85-76 to win the GLIAC tournament at AU’s Kates Gymnasium.
“That was a big 3-pointer. We were down 5 and all the momentum was on their side. What I loved about that was she just shot it. She didn’t think about it. She didn’t wonder about it. We’ve seen her hit that shot a ton. That’s something we see her make all the time in practice. What a big shot,” Ashland coach Robyn Fralick said. “What was big is she was willing to take it and she shot it with confidence. That was a huge turning point.”
The win pushed Ashland to 31-0 on the season as they await their seeding in the NCAA Division II Tournament. The announcement will be made at 10 pm. Sunday.
“It was a battle,” Fralick said. “I thought offensively there were spurts where we played really well. Defensively, we gave up way too many easy baskets but we fought. We had our backs against the wall in those last three or four minutes and I was really proud of the team for making a lot of consecutive winning plays.”
Following Henning’s 3-pointer, a Jodi Johnson layup tied the game at 71. In the final 3:14 of the game, junior Andi Daugherty scored 12 of Ashland’s 14 points, including 8 on free throws. A Daugherty layup with 2:40 left gave Ashland the lead for good.
“With experience and being an upperclassman, I’ve been in those positions before. I felt really calm,” Daugherty said. “We do a lot of situational drills in practice. The coaches do a great job of making sure that we’re prepared and comfortable in that position.”
Daugherty earned her second consecutive GLIAC Tournament Most Valuable Player award scoring 25 points and grabbing 11 boards, including 6 in the last five minutes of the game.
“It wasn’t perfect. No game ever is,” Daugherty said. “We just play so hard, and I couldn’t be more proud of my teammates. We made big plays down the stretch and got the stops we needed to.”
“We hadn’t been in that position in a long time, and I was just really proud of the fight we showed.”
Senior guard Kelsey Peare finished with 16 points, 3 assists and 3 steals. Freshman guard Jodi Johnson added 14 points, 6 rebounds and 3 assists. Both Peare and Johnson were named to the All-GLIAC Tournament Team.
“We knew coming out today it was going to be a tough game until the end,” Peare said. “We’re just really excited to win. We made great plays down this stretch. This feels awesome. I’m really proud of the team.”
The Eagles trailed at the end of the first quarter, 24-23. During the first half, Grand Valley State was able to handle AU’s trademark full court press, beating it several times for easy layups.
Ashland scored the first 4 points of the second quarter and didn’t trail again until halfway through the fourth quarter. Their biggest deficit was the 5 points with 5:08 left.
“I honestly thought, ‘Five minutes is a long time,’” Fralick said. “We weren’t down five with 10 seconds to go. Our team has done a great job of scoring and I’ve trusted my team. We’ve also done a great job getting stops. We needed to put together consecutive positions. That’s what was going through my head. We’ve got to figure out how to put together consecutive positions and get the momentum on our side and we did that.”
For Grand Valley State, Taylor Parmley led the way with 25 points and also grabbed seven rebounds and dished four assists. Piper Tucker added 17 points, three assists and five steals.
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