LINK – ASHLAND UNIVERSITY WOMEN'S BASKETBALL PAGE
THE TURNING POINT: Ashland started the game with a 12-2 lead, and never trailed.
STAT OF THE GAME: With their 5-0 start to the season, the Eagles' all-time winning percentage is .600 (725-484).
For the second time in the early part of the 2016-17 season, Ashland University's women's basketball team got a home win and a new member of the 1,000-point club at the same time.
The No. 3-ranked Eagles improved to 5-0 following an 99-67 win over Slippery Rock (3-2) on Saturday (Nov. 26) afternoon in the first day of the 2016 Holiday Inn Express Tournament at Kates Gymnasium.
"It was a great day," said Ashland head coach Robyn Fralick.
In the process, junior forward Andi Daugherty became the 19th player in Ashland women's basketball history – and the second this season (junior forward Laina Snyder the other) – to reach 1,000 career points. Daugherty scored point No. 1,000 a little more than two minutes into the game, and finished with 18 points to go with four rebounds, four assists and three steals.
"It was special to have a home crowd and my family was here to support, so it was awesome," Daugherty said. "First and foremost, (it is) God. He led me here. I wouldn't be at a program where I had the ability to score 1,000 points early in my junior year. He gets all the glory in everything I do. And then secondly, my teammates and coaches. I have great teammates.
"Laina's awesome. She's a great teammate and a great friend. We push each other in practice. We both wouldn't have gotten to this milestone without each other."
Fralick said, "She'd be the first to tell you that it's come from a lot of hard work, and playing with great teammates, but I'm really, really proud of her. It's quite a milestone."
Snyder, who passed Lisa Graue for 17th place on Ashland's all-time scoring list in the Eagles' 97-44 win at Gannon on Wednesday (Nov. 23), scored a game-high 19 points on Saturday to pass Alyssa Miller for 16th place on the list. Snyder now has 1,075 career points.
Snyder also posted a season-high 15 rebounds for her 30th career double-double (fourth in a row), in addition to three assists, three steals and four blocked shots.
Five Eagles scored in double figures – Snyder, Daugherty, freshman guard Jodi Johnson (13), sophomore guard Maddie Dackin (12) and freshman guard Renee Stimpert (10). Johnson added eight rebounds, three assists and two steals, and Stimpert collected three assists and three steals.
Ashland shot 58.5 percent from the floor and 73.9 percent from the free-throw line, while posting a 46-29 rebounding advantage and 24 assists on 38 field goals.
The Eagles ran out to a 12-2 lead, and had a 12-point advantage twice in the first quarter before taking a 27-16 bulge into the second. The Eagles led by as many as 16 points in the second stanza prior to going into halftime up 45-30.
AU had a 35-point lead in the fourth quarter en route to the victory.
Ashland has won 93 of its last 104 games (.894) at home, and has run its regular-season non-conference home winning streak to 10 games.
At the beginning of the week, the Eagles had the most wins (147) and the second-best winning percentage (.865) in NCAA Division II since the start of the 2011-12 season.
In Saturday's second game, Mercyhurst (5-0) defeated Hillsdale (4-1), 77-65.
UP NEXT: The second and final day of the 2016 Holiday Inn Express Tournament on Sunday (Nov. 27) at 3 p.m. against Mercyhurst. At 1 p.m., Hillsdale and Slippery Rock will face off.
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