After two non-conference road victories, the Ashland Women’s Basketball team played at home for the first time in the 2022-23 campaign against the Saginaw Valley State Cardinals.

The Cardinals met its 3rd GMAC opponent of the season after splitting the first two games of the season, losing against Northwood and winning against Findlay.

The Eagles did not start well in the first quarter falling behind 14 to 7 in just over 4 minutes of action. Kaitlyn Zarycki was a large contributor to the early run for the Cardinals, scoring 11 points and starting 4-4 from the field. 

With just under a minute left to go in the first, the Cardinals took their largest lead of the quarter, then leading by 10 points. Eagles Head Coach Kari Pickens was forced to call a timeout in the late first quarter and was very vocal about playing better defensively.

The Number 5 team in the country found themselves down, 27-18, at the end of one.

The Cardinals continued to work hard on the defensive end, scoring 7 straight points to start the second quarter extending the lead to 35-18. Hailey Smith finally broke the run with a layup just over 3 minutes into the second period of play.

Momentum started to change for the Eagles with transfers Maddie Maloney and Savaya Brockington canning two three-point shots to get the home crowd back into the ball game and cutting the Cardinals’ lead back to 11 with 4 minutes left before the break.

The Eagles took over the game and started to make up for the disappointing performance in the first 17 minutes of the game, with a trio of three-pointers by Morgan Yoder, Hallie Heidemann, and Sarah McKee. 

The Eagles went into halftime still down by 2 points (43-41) but had much more of a driving force late in the 2nd quarter of play.

Coming out of the halftime break, the Eagles made two three-pointers by Morgan Yoder and Savaya Brockington to counter the Cardinals’ four points scored to tie the game at 47 a piece, with 8 minutes left in the 3rd quarter.

The Eagles took their largest lead of the game at the time, with a score of, 52-49, with 6:37 on the clock in the 3rd frame. 

The Cardinals then responded right back taking a 57 to 56 lead with 3:53 left in the 3rd quarter.

Eagles backup center Hayley Smith, hit a running layup at the buzzer of the 3rd period of play, to cap a 9-2 run to take a 65-59 lead into the 4th.

The Eagles steamrolled through the start of the final period of play with relentless defense and staggered offense and held a 70-59 lead at the first stoppage of the period at 7:01 left in the game. 

The 4th quarter went without a stoppage of play for over 3 minutes and during that period the Eagles were able to continue their lockdown defense to extend their lead at an 82-67 gap.

The final moments of the contest kept the Cardinals at bay and the Eagles wrapped up its 3rd win of the season at an 87-75 mark.

Stat leaders:

Ashland:

Morgan Yoder: 16 points, 3 assists, 5 steals

Annie Roshak:15 points, 4 rebounds

Saginaw Valley State:

Tori DePerry: 21 points, 7 rebounds

Kaitlyn Zarycki: 18 points, 5 assists 

The next matchup for the Eagles is back at Kates Gymnasium vs. Lewis University, on Nov. 19, at 5:30 p.m.