LINK – ASHLAND UNIVERSITY WOMEN'S BASKETBALL PAGE
THE TURNING POINT: Ashland scored 13 straight points in the first quarter to start to pull away.
STAT OF THE GAME: The Eagles scored the second-most points in a game in school history – and this season.
Two words have defined Ashland University's women's basketball team in 2016-17 – "undefeated" and "relentless."
Monday (Jan. 30) night at Tiffin didn't change that, as the No. 1-ranked Eagles improved to 22-0 overall and 14-0 in the Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference following a 119-74 win over the Dragons (5-14, 3-11).
With the win, Ashland's magic number for winning the GLIAC South is three. The Eagles already were the first team to qualify for the 2017 GLIAC Tournament.
Ashland's 22-0 start to the season is the second-best in program history, trailing only the 24-0 beginning to the 2012-13 Division II national championship season.
Three Eagles scored a game-high 17 points – junior forward/center Laina Snyder, sophomore guard Maddie Dackin and junior forward Julie Worley. Snyder moved into sole possession of sixth place on Ashland's all-time scoring list at 1,387 points.
Freshman guard Jodi Johnson (16), junior forward Andi Daugherty (15) and senior guard Kelsey Peare (12) rounded out six Eagles in double-digit scoring. Daugherty now is 11th on AU's all-time scoring list at 1,252 points.
The Eagles reached the century mark in points for the seventh time this season, a school record. Ashland fell two points short of the GLIAC record for points in a conference game (121), set by Grand Valley State in 1975.
Ashland shot 59.2 percent from the floor, 55.0 percent from 3-point range and 85.7 percent from the free-throw line on Monday night. In their three-games-in-five-days stretch which ended Monday, the Eagles shot a cumulative 61.9 percent from the field and 57.4 percent from the arc, and scored 319 points.
The Eagles forced 31 Dragon turnovers, turning them into 47 points.
Bre Nauman and Kristen Massey each scored 13 points for Tiffin in the loss.
Tiffin stayed with Ashland early thanks to a couple 3-point field goals. After a 10-8 Eagle lead, however, turned into a 23-8 advantage in part due to Dackin's two modern treys and an old-fashioned 3.
By the end of the first quarter, the Dragons hit four triples, but turned the ball over 10 times, resulting in 16 Eagle points. Dackin had 12 points in the first 10 minutes, and Ashland led 36-17.
With 6:13 to go until halftime, when Tiffin called a timeout, the Eagles boasted a 52-26 lead – scoring at a pace of almost four points per minute. At the break, Ashland led by a 71-46 margin, Dackin already had a career-high 17 points and the Eagles turned 17 turnovers into 29 points.
The Eagles started the second half on a 10-0 run, outscored the Dragons 26-4 in the third quarter and went on from there.
Ashland began the day as one of three undefeated teams in Division II, and was the only one to play on Monday.
UP NEXT: The start of the second round of GLIAC South play on Thursday (Feb. 2) at 5:30 p.m. at Ohio Dominican (15-6, 10-4).
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