The Ashland Univeristy men’s basketball team needed to get off to a good start after their tough loss to Grand Valley State at home on Thursday night.

They did just that against Ferris State Saturday at Kates Gymnasium, and it put them well on their way to a dominating 79-41 win over the two-time defending GLIAC North champions.

Ashland (2-2, 1-1) got out to an early 16-4 lead in the first half thanks to a 13-0 run over a stretch of six minutes. That run would put the Eagles in front for the rest of the game.

“Ferris is great team,” said Eagles head coach John Ellenwood. “We were up 25 [in the second half] and I was still nervous. They are that explosive. For us to get a win against them is good for us.”

Senior forward Evan Yates led the way for the Eagles, scoring 27 points and also corralling 12 rebounds on the day.

“I felt like I started off a little slow today,” said Yates, “but once a got a rhythm going, I began playing a better game. I have my teammates to thank to put me in a position to do that.”

There were a few teammates of Yates that stood out in their respective roles to help the Eagles win in impressive fashion. DaWaun Thomas was responsible for guarding FSU’s All-GLIAC guard Kenny Brown.

Brown, who came in averaging nearly 20 points per contest on the season, was held to only 6 points on 3 of 11 shooting.

“He completely shut [Brown] down,” said Ellenwood of Thomas’s defensive efforts. “He was great defensively for us today.”

Thomas was also the Eagles second-leading scorer in the game with 14 points on 5 of 9 shooting from the field, 2 of 3 from behind the 3-point arc.

Another standout for Ashland was senior guard David Harris. Although his numbers weren’t eye-popping (3 points on 1 of 7 shooting, 4 rebounds, and 5 assists), his ability to orchestrate the offense had Ellenwood extremely pleased.

“David makes this offense go,” said Ellenwood. “He’s the rock of this team. He had a lot of hockey assists today setting up others to make plays. I’d say he was our offensive player of the game.”

“I didn’t shoot well today at all,” said Harris, “but I wanted to control the basketball today and I was able to do that and keep them from getting on the fastbreak.”

This was the first time in Ellenwood’s four years with AU that he was able to lead the Eagles to a victory over FSU (2-3, 1-1).

Although there were good individual performances across the board for AU, the team’s performance was the most impressive aspect of the Eagles game.

“The effort was great today,” said Yates. “We played well as a team on both ends and we got the result we wanted.”

Forward Daniel Sutherlin led the Bulldogs in scoring with 18 points. He also had 7 rebounds.

The Eagles will be in action Wednesday when they travel to Wayne State for a 6 p.m. tip-off.