Brescia Outburst Sends AU Past Hillsdale
February 5, 2004

Complete Box Score

The weather was a mixed bag Thursday (Feb. 5) night outside Ashland’s Kates Gymnasium. Snow, sleet and rain all came down. What could melt that combination and make travel safe?

Isolina Brescia scores career-high 34 points leading Eagles to 95-78 win over Hillsdale Thursday night. (File photo)

Salt would be one option. Another would be having Ashland University senior point guard Isolina Brescia apply her magic touch.

Brescia put the Hillsdale Chargers on ice Thursday. She scored a career-high 34 points, burying 12 of 15 field goal tries to lead the Eagles over the Chargers, 95-78. The victory snapped a two-game AU losing streak. The Eagles, ranked seventh in the Great Lakes region, are 16-6, 7-5 in Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference play. Hillsdale is 7-13 and 4-7.

Brescia had 19 points in the second half as AU pulled away from the Chargers. The Eagles were in front, 42-36 at the intermission. Hillsdale proved to be turnover-prone – the young Chargers gave the ball away 20 times (AU had 15 turnovers). In points off of turnovers, AU had a 28-15 lead. The Eagles also whipped the Chargers on the boards, 39-26 and that helped Ashland dominate the second chance points department, 17-8.

Any time AU was in trouble, it turned to Brescia. Most point guards don’t shoot as much as the Lima, Peru, native, but no one was complaining about Brescia’s shot selection on Thursday. She was 2-for-3 from three-point range and in addition to her scoring, had eight rebounds, eight assists and six steals. The school single-game record for points is 39, set by Vickie Schmitz against Indianapolis in 1988.

Even with Brescia’s exploits, the Eagles couldn’t pull away from the Chargers until late in the contest. A jumper from the Eagle guard with 2:45 left in regulation gave AU an 84-74 lead. The senior hit a pair of free throws with 1:42 left to extend the lead to 12 and that’s when Hillsdale was forced to foul to try and get the ball back. That strategy backfired as AU nailed 20 of 22 free throw tries in the second half (90.9 percent). For the game, Ashland was good on 24-of-26 tries (92.3 percent) at the line.

Sophomore guard Dee Bethune had 19 points for AU and freshman guard Amber Rall added 14 points. Senior forward Alanna Buurma scored 13 points and junior center Jackie Mason had 11 points, four steals and three blocked shots. Mason has 69 rejections this year and that’s a school single-season record, breaking the mark of 68 she set two seasons ago.

Jodie Haines had 23 points to pace HC. Nikki Wustman had 12 points and Kelly Paxson fired in 10 points.

AU returns to action next Thursday (Feb. 12) with a home game against Mercyhurst.