AU Women Travel in Style at Mercyhurst, Win 70-64
February 18, 2006

Complete Box Score

Unless you live on a track – on a parcel of land in the midst of Kansas – there are going to be bumps in the road.

The Ashland University women encountered one of those speed bumps Thursday at Gannon, seeing a three-game winning streak end with a 91-89 loss to the Golden Knights. Saturday (Feb. 18), on the back end of their two-game road swing to Erie, PA, the Eagles got back to smooth sailing – and the win column - with a 70-64 conquest of Mercyhurst.

Ashland is 17-9, 11-4 in the Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference. AU is in first place in the GLIAC South Division. The Lakers are 8-18, 4-12.

AU didn’t take any detours in derailing the ‘Hurst. The Eagles gave the ball away just 11 times. Ahead 36-32 at halftime, AU took the lead for good with 4:51 to play in regulation when sophomore Lisa Graue’s jumper put the Eagles ahead, 61-60. A layup by junior forward Catherine Portyrata and a free throw by Graue extended the Ashland lead to 64-60 with 3:08 remaining.

The ‘Hurst cut that margin to two points twice, the last with 22 ticks showing on the clock. Junior guard Amber Rall helped keep MC at arm’s length by connecting on 3-of-4 free throws in the final 15 seconds.

Rall, who had 34 points at Gannon, had 19 points and seven assists against the Lakers. Graue had 17 points and seven rebounds and freshman forward Betsy Morrison added 12 points and five caroms.

Center Erin Solada and forward Julie Anderson had 16 points each for MC and Anderson pulled down 15 rebounds. Guard Cassie Seth had 13 points.

The Lakers made it interesting in the first half when they canned 3-of-7 three-point field goal tries. That long range game disappeared in the second half when the Lakers misfired on all six of their three-point tries. The ‘Hurst didn’t shoot a free throw in the second half. For the game, AU was 12-for-20 (60 percent) at the free throw stripe while the Lakers were 5-for-8 (62.5 percent). The Lakers weren’t the only ones without a triple in the second half, Ashland was 0-for-4 from beyond the arc over the last 20 minutes.

The victory allows AU to sweep the season series from Mercyhurst. Earlier this year at Kates Gymnasium, AU got the better of the Lakers, 83-42. Ashland has won the last seven meetings with Mercyhurst.

The Eagles don’t have much time to recover from their trip to northwestern Pennsylvania. Monday (Feb. 20), AU hosts Northern Michigan. That’s the Eagles’ final home regular season game.