AU Men’s Basketball’s Three-Headed Monster Negates Northwood’s Three-Point Barrage
January 19, 2006

By Paul Carmany, AU Sports Information

Complete Box Score

On a night when it seemed that Northwood could not miss from behind the three-point line at the Bennett Center, Ashland responded with a three-pronged attack to secure a road victory. Brett Bartlett, Justin Brown and Vahn Knight combined to score 45 of the Eagles’ 47 second-half points, enabling AU to pull out a come-from-behind 74-71 win.

Ashland has now eclipsed last season’s win total and is 14-4 overall and 6-2 in GLIAC play. The Timberwolves are 6-11, 1-7 in the GLIAC.

Northwood’s Nemanja Kreckovic and Eric Giesow gave a foreshadowing of things to come in the first 2:32 of the game, nailing back-to-back three-pointers to open the game’s scoring.

The Timberwolves led for the entire first half, by as many as 12 points (32-20), and took a 34-27 lead into the locker room.

Northwood connected seven times from long distance in the opening half and limited AU to 24.1 percent field-goal shooting. Ashland’s 24-17 rebounding edge, aided by Brown’s 11 first-half caroms, kept the Eagles in the game.

Knight and Bartlett led an AU surge to start the second half, scoring all of the Eagles’ points in a 14-8 run. A jumper by Knight cut the AU deficit to 42-41 at the 15:52 mark.

The home team got hot once again, coming right back with a 15-4 burst of its own, capped by three straight connections from long range. Northwood led, 57-45, with 10:59 remaining in the contest.

Ashland then began to chip away at the deficit. Bartlett’s fifth three-pointer of the game gave the Eagles their first lead, 64-63, with 5:17 left.

The game went back and forth before clutch free throw shooting enabled Ashland to pull it out. Brown was fouled with exactly 1:00 showing on the clock and connected on both charity tosses to give the Eagles a 70-69 lead.

On its ensuing possession, Northwood’s Eric Giesow was fouled while driving to the basket. He missed both free throws at the :44 mark.

Brown tipped in a missed shot with 12 seconds left to make the score 72-69, Ashland.

The Timberwolves cut the deficit back to one on an Asen Marchev layup with five seconds remaining.

Rob McRae’s first two points of the second half were huge ones--a pair of free throws with five seconds left that gave Ashland a 74-71 lead.

Kreckovic, the game’s leading scorer with 26 points, missed the front end of a one-and-one with three seconds left, but his team corralled the rebound, giving Northwood time for one last shot.

The Timberwolves executed an out-of-bounds play that set Giesow up for a three-pointer, but he missed as the buzzer sounded, enabling AU to run its road record to 7-1.

Knight scored 18 of his team-high 24 points in the second half. Bartlett tossed in 17 of his career-high 20 points in the final 20 minutes. Brown, the reigning GLIAC South Division Player of the Week, ended up with 19 points, a season-best 17 rebounds and four assists.

Marchev totaled 14 points for Northwood, while Aaron Simpson added 13 points and seven boards.

Both teams were busy from behind the arc, as Ashland connected on 10-23 three-point attempts while Northwood was 12-33. AU enjoyed one of its best efforts from the free throw line, making 24-30. Meanwhile, the Timberwolves were just 5-10. The Eagles won the rebounding battle, 41-30.

Ashland will travel to Saginaw Valley State on Saturday (Jan. 21) to battle the Cardinals at 3 p.m. SVSU is 6-11, 1-7 in the GLIAC.