|
Railsplitters Cut
Down Eagles Men, 75-74 |
|
Sometimes on opening night the curtain moves a little slow and a line or two is forgotten. Oops, that’s the theatre, not the basketball court. At any rate, the same rules often apply. The Ashland University Eagles opened play in 2003-2004 on Monday night (Nov. 17) at Kates Gymnasium. There were some rough edges, but no one of the 1,000 in attendance could complain about the amount of drama. The Eagles and Railsplitters went right to the final buzzer. LMU’s Paul Noble hit a pair of free throws with seven tenths of a second remaining in regulation and that was enough to send the Railsplitters past the Eagles, 75-74. While this was the opener for AU, LMU already had a game under its belt. On Saturday, the Railsplitters fell at Hillsdale. The Railsplitters were behind, 71-66 with 4:04 to play. The visitors outscored the Eagles, 9-3 the rest of the way and didn’t allow a field goal after AU’s Kevin Shorter hit a layup with 54 seconds left. Ashland’s last lead came with 54 seconds remaining, 74-73. Lincoln Memorial’s Angelo Johnson led all players in the game with 30 points and 14 rebounds. The only other LMU player to reach double digits was Noble with 11 points. Freshmen guards Vahn Knight and Chris Newell had 13 points apiece for the Eagles. Freshman forward Greg Emmons had 11 points and five rebounds and Shorter had 10 points. Junior forward Mark Church had eight points and a team-high eight rebounds. Both teams struggled to find the range offensively. Ashland shot 38.2 percent (12-32) from the floor and 48.6 percent (17-35) at the free throw line. LMU was at 43.5 percent (30-69) from the field and 61.5 percent (8-13) at the free throw line. Turnovers plagued both teams. LMU gave the ball away 19 times and Ashland was guilty of 15 turnovers. LMU held a 49-46 edge on the glass. Ashland led for the majority of the first half, but was never in front by more than five points. A late spurt before halftime gave the visitors a 35-34 edge at the intermission. For most of the game the two teams were in close proximity to each other. The score was tied 10 times and the lead changed hands 11 times. Ashland will play Lynn on Friday (Nov. 21) at the Florida Gulf Coast Tournament. |