Chargers Hold Off Eagles for Season Sweep, 81-71
February 13, 2003

Complete Box Score

On Valentine’s Day eve, the Ashland University Eagles showed plenty of heart and guts.

But after 40 minutes of basketball, all the Eagles had left were broken hearts and a stomach ache that wouldn’t go away.

Junior forward Chris Northcross tossed in 20 points and senior guard Jonathon Dues added 19 points as Hillsdale (14-10, 6-8 Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference) upended Ashland (15-8, 7-7), 81-71. The loss is AU’s second straight and puts the Eagles between a rock and a hard place. The Eagles would like to mount a challenge on the two teams directly in front of them in the GLIAC standings – Wayne State and Gannon. The problem, however, is that AU is fourth in the GLIAC South Division and Hillsdale is now just one game behind. The Eagles now must worry about what’s behind them as well as what’s in front of them.

Thursday’s win gives the Chargers a sweep of the season series. In the first game, AU played without an injured Isaac Kincaid and lost, 95-66. Kincaid played 36 minutes Thursday, but Dues did a good job defensively on the AU sharpshooter, holding him to 10 points. Kincaid hit just two of 10 shots from the field.

Northcross did much of his damage in the paint, although he did step outside to nail three, three-point field goals. When the Eagles managed to bottle up Northcross and 6-10 senior center Matt Mlynarchek (19 points), Dues was able to knock down three-point field goals. The HC guard was five-for-nine from three-point range.

The Chargers led, 31-30 at halftime. A 17-6 run by the Chargers over the first 4:45 of the second half gave the visitors a 48-37 lead. Ashland was as close as two points with 7:01 remaining in regulation, but a three-point field goal by Northcross put the Chargers back in front by five points, 64-59 with 6:40 to play.

The Chargers are one of the league’s biggest teams and AU features one of the GLIAC’s smallest front lines. Nevertheless, AU outrebounded HC, 42-29. The Eagles also did a nice job double-teaming Northcross and Mlynarchek in the post. But AU was playing short-handed – senior power forward Pat Rush was sidelined with a knee injury. Six AU players logged 20 or more minutes. A deeper Hillsdale team used that to its advantage.

Sophomore center Mike Campbell had 18 points to pace AU. Junior forward Justin Larrick led all players in the game with 12 rebounds. Senior point guard Angelo Edwards had 12 points and senior guard-forward Tom Church added 10 points.

Ashland shot 38.2 percent (21-55) from the field and Hillsdale hit 48.1 percent (25-52) from the floor. The Chargers were the much better team at the free throw stripe, shooting 82.6 percent (19-23) compared to Ashland’s 66.7 percent (24-36).

The Eagles play another key GLIAC game Saturday (Feb. 15) when they host Wayne State at 3 p.m. The Warriors lost Thursday night at Findlay and are in third place, one game ahead of the Eagles in the GLIAC South.