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Quick Start Sends
Tech Past AU Women, 72-62 |
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Not every game is decided in the final minute. What works for authors like Stephen King and Dean Koontz – a 300-page thriller that reveals itself in the final five pages – can make basketball coaches look like ghosts at a young age. Saturday’s (Jan. 4) women’s basketball game between Michigan Tech and Ashland in Houghton, MI, didn’t have a lot of drama at the end. The host Huskies took a lot of mystery out of the afternoon, scoring the game’s first eight points. MTU was in front, 8-0 with 18:08 left in the first half. With 14:26 to play before halftime, the Huskies led, 15-3 and at the break, MTU enjoyed a 42-23 spread. In the second half, the Eagles trailed by as many as 21 points. AU narrowed that lead to eight at 62-54 with 4:21 to play, but Tech wasn’t going to disappear on this afternoon. The Huskies regrouped and won their fifth straight game, 72-62, in improving to 8-4, 4-0 in Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference play. Ashland is 7-6, 2-2 in the conference. The Eagles have won just once in their last five games. AU will take a three-game losing streak into Monday night’s (Jan. 6) game at Lake Superior State. It’s not helping matters any that this current three-game swing through Michigan’s Upper Peninsula is considered the most difficult trip of the season. The Eagles completely lost their shooting touch in the first half Saturday. One major reason for that 19-point deficit at halftime was poor shooting – the Eagles made only eight of 29 shots (27.6 percent) from the floor in the first 20 minutes. Tech never let the Eagles get their full-court offense up and running either and that made any comeback difficult. Ashland only had four fastbreak points in 40 minutes of basketball. Tech used a balanced scoring attack to pick away at the Eagles. Forward Andrea Novak had a team-high 18 points. The other starting forward, Emily McCone, tallied 15 points and seven rebounds. Guard Maria Schneider had 15 points and five steals and guard Annie Madden scored 12 points and collected seven rebounds. Ashland was paced by junior forward Alanna Buurma. She had 15 points – 11 in the second half. Sophomore guard Courtney Balser had 13 points. Much of her damage came from long-range shooting, she hit three of six shots from three-point range. Balser was the only AU player to hit a three-point field goal, the rest of the team was 0-11 from behind the arc. Balser is the team leader in treys with 15. The final AU player to reach double digits was freshman guard DeAndria Bethune. She had one of her best games of the season with 11 points and five rebounds. Sophomore guard-forward Beth Everman and junior guard Isolina Brescia also brought down five rebounds apiece. Michigan Tech held a 37-36 rebounding edge. The turnovers were nearly even – 20 for Tech, 17 for AU. The Eagles shot just 68.8 percent from the free throw line (11-16) and checked in at 37.5 percent (24-64) from the floor. The Huskies were significantly better, sinking 48 percent (24-50) from the field and 78.3 percent (18-23) at the charity stripe. |