ASHLAND — His team had just surrendered another uncontested jump shot early in the fourth quarter when Madison coach Brian Davis turned to the scorer’s table inside Arrow Arena.
“This is what five games in eight days with no practice looks like,” an exasperated Davis said.
It wasn’t pretty for the Rams.
Alyssa Steury scored a game-high 25 points and Kylie Radebaugh broke Ashland’s career 3-pointers record en route to 17 points as Ashland cruised to a 70-40 win over the Rams.
“The girls, I think, were just spent,” Davis said. “The tank was on empty.”
Ashland (4-3, 1-1 Ohio Cardinal Conference) put it away early, racing out to a 14-4 first quarter advantage. The Arrows led 24-14 with less than three minutes to play in the first half before Steury heated up, scoring eight of her 10 second-quarter points in a span of 80 seconds. She connected on back-to-back 3-pointers before assisting on Alicia Van Horn’s layup for a 34-14 lead. Madison (4-4, 0-2) closed the quarter on a 4-0 run but trailed 34-18 at the break.
The Steury girl kind of took over in the second quarter,” Ashland coach Jason Snow said. “She made back-to-back 3s and then we relaxed and our girls gained a lot of confidence.”
Radebaugh picked up in the third quarter where Steury left off in the second. The senior scored 11 of her 17 in the period, including the record-breaking 3-pointer with 5:08 remaining in the third. It was her 88th career triple, passing 2015 grad and Kylie Chandler.
The game was stopped for a brief ceremony that included Radebaugh’s family and Chandler, a junior softball player at Lake Erie College.
“The record means a lot to me,” Radebaugh said. “I knew it was coming, but I wasn’t super focused on it.
“It was even better that (the record) belonged to one of my best friends. She was a senior when I was a freshman and she told me if anyone was going to break it, she was glad it was me.”
The Arrows outscored the Rams 24-12 in the third and took a 58-30 lead to the fourth quarter. Ashland was 25-for-39 from the floor through the first three quarters and 30-for-56 for the game.
“They shot the ball well, but with a defensive effort like we put in I would expect teams to knock down some shots,” Davis said. “Our defensive effort was the worst of the year.”
Tyleh Cline backed Steury and Radebaugh with 10 points for the Arrows. Chesney Davis led Madison with 10 points, while Rebecca Phelps added nine and Makenzie Mullins and Brooklyn Arnold each had eight.
