Hot is the one word that comes to mind when describing the Ashland men’s basketball team. The Eagles are on a tear, winning five in a row and playing their best basketball this season.

The Eagles played some key conference games over winter break, starting with a road trip to Hillsdale and Northwood where they lost both games.

The Eagles were off to a very sluggish start to the season at 4-6 overall and 1-4 in the GLIAC. Things were not looking good for the men of Ashland, and what looked like was going to be a long winter for the Eagles turned around very quickly for the better.

Ashland had a three-game home stand, facing Edinboro, conference opponent Findlay and Urbana. After a 12-point victory over Edinboro, the Eagles faced the Findlay Oilers, ranked no. 17 nationally.

With the Oilers heavily favored and winners of eight straight contests against Ashland coming in, the Eagles were huge underdogs. But the Eagles shocked the GLIAC as they upset the Oilers 94-80 behind 31 points by junior guard Ronnie Steward, which was a career high for him.

Five AU players scored in double figures with junior forward Evan Yates scoring 20 and sophomore forward Will Evans going for 19. Coach Ellenwood was very happy with the upset win.

“The nice thing about it is we did it as a team,” he said.

After the huge upset victory over Findlay, the Eagles faced nonconference opponent Urbana two days later. After a sluggish start, the same sparks that were on display in the Findlay victory came alive again in the second half and led to a 71-56 victory.

Junior Forward Evan Yates shined, leading the Eagles with 21 points and 12 rebounds. Yates has been the team’s MVP so far, leading the conference in scoring and rebounding with 21 points and 12.7 rebounds per game.

After winning three straight games, the Eagles visited GLIAC opponent Tiffin (7-9, 1-8 GLIAC) on Jan. 12 in a very close game that came down to the end. The game came down to last-second misses on the free throw line by the Dragons in order for AU to secure the 61-59 victory. Yates recorded his 10th double-double of the season with 16 points and 13 rebounds. The Eagles were able to grind out the victory despite shooting just 30.3 percent from the field in the first half.

After its fourth straight victory against Tiffin, conference play continued for Ashland Saturday afternoon at Kates Gymnasium, where the Eagles faced off against struggling opponent Ohio Dominican (3-12, 0-9).

The Eagles knew that even though ODU didn’t show up well in the standings, the game itself would be an entirely different story on the court.

“Ohio Dominican has always played us tough, we’ve never had an easy game against them. They’ve got a lot of local guys and they want to play us well in front of their fans and family,” Ellenwood said. “We get their best effort every time they play us.”

The Panthers led by 11 points at one point in the first half, trying to cool off the surging Eagles in this midseason run. However, the Eagles pushed through to victory behind great play from redshirt freshman DaWuan Thomas, who hit some timely 3-pointers and finished the game with 17 points and seven assists.

Along with Thomas, Yates led the team in scoring with 26 points and seven rebounds and sophomore forward Will Evans finished with 25 points and three steals.

The strong play of Yates has sparked this team to win five straight and the stats don’t lie. The Eagles will go as far as Yates goes this season; he has shown why he is one of the top players in the country in Division II.

Ashland is now moving into the second half of its schedule and toward a possible birth into the GLIAC tournament. The Eagles will play eleven straight GLIAC games to finish the regular season.

It will not be an easy road to finish the season, but if the Eagles play consistent basketball they should finish in the top half of the conference.