The Ashland University women’s basketball team learned two things during this weekend’s sweep of the Saginaw Valley State Cardinals and Lake Superior State Lakers: free throws will win you games and when someone can’t miss, feed them the ball. The Eagles defeated the Cardinals Thursday 79-60 then followed that up with an 83-75 overtime win against the Lakers Saturday.

Saginaw Valley State

Lindsey Tenyak led the way for the Eagles against the Cardinals Thursday night with a career-high 27 points on 10-of-11 shooting from the field and 6-for-6 from the three-point line. Tenyak, who played in 27 minutes while coming off the bench, also tallied five rebounds, three assists and two steals.

The Eagles trailed early in the game as the Cardinals took a 9-3 lead early in the first, but Tenyak caught fire and made three consecutive threes, giving the Eagles a 14-10 lead with 12 minutes left in the first half. After a back-and-forth first half, the Eagles found themselves up just one, leading 36-35 at the intermission.

In the second half, the Eagles’ battle with the Cardinals continued, as Ashland found themselves trailing the 4-11 Cardinals, 51-50 with just over 11 minutes remaining. On the next two Eagle possessions, Kaci Finfrock scored five points and gave the Eagles a four-point cushion they would not relinquish. Finfrock, who finished with 14 points and a career-best eight assists, was a major factor in Ashland’s bench outscoring the Cardinals, 48-23.

Tenyak was the other reason the Eagles dominated in bench production and her three-pointer late in the second half helped Ashland’s 22-3 game sealing run, where the Cardinals didn’t make a field goal for nearly eight minutes.

Daiva Gerbec continued to have success down low for head coach Sue Ramsey as she recorded, at the time, her seventh double-double of the season, with 14 points and 12 rebounds. The Eagles as a team shot 52 percent from the floor while connecting on 9-of-15 from the three point line and missing just one foul shot.

Lake Superior State

It took extra time for the Eagles and Lakers to decide the outcome of Saturday’s affair, but the Eagles escaped with an eight-point victory on the road, 83-75. The Eagles could have won in regulation, but Daiva Gerbec’s free throw with less than a second left missed, but that allowed the Eagles to even up their overtime record on the season to 1-1.

In the first half, Ashland got out to an early 12-6 lead but that advantage would be short-lived, as Ashland’s defense struggled to stop the three-point shot, allowing the Lakers to convert on 6-of-11 from beyond the arc. Ashland managed just 26 first half points on 37 percent shooting and trailed 40-26 at the break.

In the second half, the tables turned. Ashland spent much of the second half trying to draw even with the Lakers, and at the 3:46 mark in regulation, Liz Tyler’s jumper evened things at 57-57. Both teams traded baskets in the final minutes, but Ashland found themselves down three with under a minute to play. Jena Stutzman, Ashland’s leading scorer this season, tied the game up with a three with 13 seconds remaining. After a pair of Emily Joseph free throws, Gerbec was fouled after making a layup to tie the game at 66-66, but she missed the free throw, a rare one for one of the best in the country.

In the overtime period, it was all Ashland, as the Eagles scored 17 points in the extra time, and dominated every facet of the offensive game, shooting 6-for-8 from the field and 4-of-5 from the free throw line. Stutzman finished the game with 29 points, the third time this season she has scored 29 or more, and Tyler finished with 11, five coming in the extra session. Gerbec finished with 13 points and 19 rebounds, her eighth double-double of the year. Gerbec’s 19 boards was the second highest total on the season for the sophomore, as she has grabbed 16 or more rebounds in four games this year. Senior guard, Rachel Poorman also pitched in 12 points and seven rebounds.

The Eagles improved their record to 11-5 and 6-3 in the GLIAC and will face Wayne State Thursday followed by Findlay Saturday. Ohio Dominican makes a trip to Kates Gymnasium on the third of February.