The Ashland Women’s basketball team took on the Cedarville Yellow Jackets on Thursday, Feb. 20 in a Great Midwest Athletic Conference (G-MAC) matchup. 

Before Thursday, Ashland held an 18-game win streak which was good for fourth best in Division II, and they also held a 25-game home win streak which was good for best in the nation. Cedarville looked to play the underdog despite only having seven wins in the G-MAC. 

The game started with a quick 7-2 lead less than four minutes into the game for the Eagles that would only grow as the game went on. The first quarter ended with a commanding 17-9 lead for Ashland, and this would only be the beginning of a monster half for the Eagles. 

The second quarter would start off with a 9-0 run by Ashland when Cedarville would score their only two points in the quarter on a layup with 6:15 to play in the half. Ashland would close out the half on an 11-0 run and head to the locker room with a 27-point lead while holding the Jackets to 1-12 from the field in the second quarter. 

The third quarter was much of the same for the Eagles, a stellar defense and an offense game plan to back it up. Ashland finished the quarter with a 14-2 run and could feel the win getting closer and closer to their grasp as they headed to the fourth quarter up 62-18.  

The fourth quarter was relatively even with Cedarville still putting on their full court press, but they couldn’t prevail as Ashland secured the win 83-34 which is good enough to clinch a share of the G-MAC. Senior forward, Zoe Miller, followed her career performance on Saturday with another great night scoring 22 points and grabbing eight rebounds. Senior forward Hayley Smith also contributed by getting her 15th double-double of the season with 13 points and 13 rebounds. 

Ashland will play their final home regular season game next Thursday, Feb. 27 against the Findlay Oilers at 5:30 p.m. for their shot at clinching a stand-alone G-MAC title.