The men’s basketball team pushed its winning streak to seven games, blowing out Saginaw Valley State Jan. 19 and gritting out an overtime win over Lake Superior State two days later. Both of those games were played in Kates Gymnasium.

The road was not as kind to the Eagles. Last Thursday, Ashland traveled to Detroit and suffered its first loss of 2012 at the hands of Wayne State. Two days later, Findlay exacted its revenge for what happened Jan. 5 at Kates, handing the Eagles their worst loss of the season.

Saginaw Valley State

Evan Yates showed why is the best player in the GLIAC this season, scoring 25 points and grabbing 17 rebounds in a 72-52 blowout win for the Eagles over Saginaw Valley State (8-8, 4-5).

Yates put the team on his back in the first half, scoring 15 of the team’s 27 points while grabbing 10 rebounds to secure his third first half double-double of the season.

“We’ve been preaching energy all week and I think that really carried over into this game,” Yates said.

Ashland took a 27-22 lead into the break despite shooting just 36.7 percent (11 of 30) from the field in the first half and going 0 of 7 from behind the arc.

The Eagles picked things up in the second half, however, starting with Jordan Berlin hitting the team’s first 3-pointer of the game right out of the gate. Ashland hit 5 of 8 3-pointers in the second half and finished the game at 52 percent from the field after hitting 15 of 20 attempts in the last 20 minutes.

“We’ve been knocking down shots in practice and it’s carried over into the games. We’ve got a lot of chemistry going on now,” Yates said.

Junior guard Ronnie Steward had 12 points and redshirt freshman DaWuan Thomas added 11 to help pace the Eagles, who made 15 of 20 attempts from the foul line.

Yates was on pace for 30 points and 20 rebounds until he checked out with just over six minutes left. It would have been his second 30-20 game of the season.

Lake Superior State

After struggling to score for most of the game, DaWuan Thomas turned it on in overtime and led the Eagles to a 78-74 win over Lake Superior State (8-9, 3-7).

The redshirt freshman guard scored on three straight possessions in the extra period and scored seven of the team’s 20 points in overtime. He finished with 11 points and eight rebounds.

“My teammates and coaches kept me in the game and kept faith in me,” Thomas said. “I was able to come up big down the stretch when we needed it.”

The Eagles went into halftime with a 28-15 lead and led 58-51 with four minutes left before the stingy Lakers squad took advantage of some sloppy play by Ashland to close the gap and force overtime.

“Those guys are always gonna fight,” Ashland head coach John Ellenwood said. “They’re a blue collar team and (coach Steve Hettinga) does a good job of getting them ready to go. They don’t quit and they never will. You have to fight them tooth and nail.”

The teams went into the overtime period tied at 58. Steward broke the deadlock with a steal and a coast-to-coast layup. After getting a stop on defense, the Eagles moved the ball around and found Yates inside for an easy layup to make it 62-58 with four minutes left.

After two free throws by the Lakers and one by the Eagles’ Will Evans, Lake State’s Alex Williams hit two threes from the right corner to give the Lakers their first lead since the first half at 63-60 with 2:43 remaining.

That’s when Thomas went to work, starting with a pull-up jumper in the lane on Ashland’s next possession. The next time down the court, Thomas dribbled to the right block, drawing contact as he put up an awkward shot from over his head on his way back down to the floor that fell. No foul was called.

On the Eagles’ next possession, Thomas spun away from two defenders at the top of the key and dribbled into the paint before flipping a shot up and in off the glass to give Ashland the lead for good.

“He’s a baller,” Ellenwood said. “I love looking at him in a timeout, and the kid’s like, ‘I want the ball.’ That’s something that gives me a lot of confidence.”

Yates finished with 20 points and six rebounds despite being in foul trouble and playing only 31 minutes. Steward had 17 points and Evans had 16 for the Eagles.

At Wayne State

Ashland dug itself a hole too deep to climb out of, trailing 42-23 at halftime before eventually falling 79-71 at Wayne State (11-7, 8-4) Thursday.

The Eagles scored just nine points in the opening nine minutes and trailed by as many as 21 in the first half. They cut the lead to eight at 68-60 on a layup by redshirt freshman Ben Mixer with 3:41 left, but that was as close as they would come to threatening the lead.

Yates and Mixer both were in foul trouble early, eventually fouling out late in the second half. Yates finished with 20 points and nine rebounds in just 25 minutes of action.

Thomas had 13 points and Steward and Mixer each added 12 for AU. Bryan Coleman led the attack for Wayne State with 17 points and eight rebounds.

At Findlay

Sometimes a team just gets hot.

That’s what happened Saturday at Croy Gymnasium in Findlay, as the Oilers (15-4, 9-3) seemingly made everything on the way to a 79-49 shellacking of the Eagles.

“They’re just a lot better shooting the ball at home than they are on the road,” Ellenwood said.

Findlay made 11 three-pointers and shot 56.4 percent (31 of 55) from the field, while the Eagles were 2 of 11 from deep and shot 44.2 percent (19 of 43) overall.

Ashland led 4-0 after three minutes, when Evan Yates posted up inside and made a reverse layup, and the teams traded baskets until just before the ten minute mark. Then, Jack Smith and Jake Heagen came off the bench and drained three 3-pointers in two minutes to give the Oilers a 21-12 advantage on the way to a 34-20 lead at halftime.

Findlay’s bench outscored Ashland’s 41-2.

“We’ve got to get better with our guys coming off the bench,” Ellenwood said. “They’ve got to be able to give us some great minutes and we’re going to continue to work on that.”

The loss dropped the Eagles to 11-8 overall and 6-6 in the conference. They currently sit alone in fourth place in the GLIAC South and in a three-way tie with Grand Valley and Saginaw Valley State for seventh overall.

“You’ve just got to move on to the next game,” Ellenwood said. “ODU on the road, we’ve got to learn to win there.”

The Eagles play Ohio Dominican Thursday in Columbus before heading back home Saturday to take on Tiffin. That game starts at 3 p.m.