Ashland Women's Basketball Weekly Report
February 21, 2006

By Paul Carmany, AU Sports Information

This Week’s Game
Saturday, Feb. 25—Ashland (18-9, 12-4 GLIAC) at Findlay (12-14, 5-11 GLIAC)— 1 p.m.
Saturday’s game will be broadcast on WNCO 1340 AM and Webcast.

Opening Tip
Ashland just went through one of the most grueling parts of its 2005-06 schedule, one that saw the Eagles play three Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (GLIAC) games in five days. AU won two of the three contests and nearly overcame a 19-point, second half deficit at Gannon in the third, dropping a 91-89 decision.

Those two victories wrapped up Ashland’s third straight GLIAC South Division title and its fourth in the last five seasons. The Eagles, who have won 12 of their last 14 games, will host a GLIAC tournament first-round game next Tuesday (Feb. 28) at 5:30 p.m. against a yet-to-be-determined wild card team. Wayne State is one of AU’s most likely opponents in that contest.

AU’s performance over the past week should also enable the Eagles to maintain the seventh spot in the NCAA Division II Great Lakes region when this week’s poll is released. The top eight teams in the region, including the GLIAC and Great Lakes Valley Conference (GLVC) tournament champions, will participate in the NCAA Division II Great Lakes Regional tournament March 10, 11 and 13.

Before coach Sue Ramsey’s squad can think about the postseason, though, it has a bit of unfinished business in the regular season. AU will close its regular season schedule at Findlay on Saturday (Feb. 25). The Eagles have lost the last eight road games against their in-state rivals. The Oilers will have no shortage of inspiration, either. It will be Senior Day, a capacity crowd is expected and Findlay needs a win to keep its GLIAC tournament hopes alive.

AU Head Coach Sue Ramsey
Sue Ramsey is in her 11th season at Ashland. She is the winningest coach in school history at 168-135 (.554) and has led the Eagles to back-to-back 20-win seasons for the first time. She has guided Ashland to five GLIAC South Division titles, including the last three in a row. AU made its first trip to the NCAA Division II Tournament in the 2003-04 season under Ramsey’s direction. She is 263-263 (.500) in 19 years as a collegiate head coach. Her first eight seasons were spent at Dayton.

Soaring Eagles
Junior guard Amber Rall (Bucyrus, OH/Wynford) is playing some of the best basketball of her stellar, three-year career at Ashland. She tossed in a career-high 34 points at Gannon on Thursday (Feb. 16), 22 of which came during AU’s second-half comeback. Rall then totaled 19 points and seven assists at Mercyhurst. She made three free throws and recorded a steal in the last 15 seconds of play to seal a close win. Rall is the GLIAC’s leading scorer at 18.1 ppg. She ranks third in AU history with 1,424 points. Rall has scored 489 points this season and needs 11 more markers to break the school single-season scoring record.

Senior guard DeAndria Bethune (Akron, OH/Hoban) became the 11th player in program history to score 1,000 career points, reaching the magical mark with her fourth three-pointer of Thursday’s contest at Gannon. She ended that game with 16 points. Bethune, who is now up to 1,020 points, will play in her 114th career game on Saturday (Feb. 25) at Findlay. That will establish a new school record, eclipsing the previous mark held by Jackie Mason (2000-05).

Sophomore guard/forward Lisa Graue (Dayton, OH/Wayne) enjoyed a solid, all-around week, averaging 11.7 ppg., 9.3 rpg., and 3.3 apg. in the three games. She recorded her sixth double-double of the season against Gannon, providing 12 points and 10 rebounds. With 12 more boards, Graue will have achieved one of the top five single-season rebound totals in AU history.

Junior forward Catherine Portyrata (North Canton, OH/Hoover) wishes Ashland played Northern Michigan more often. She tallied 21 points and nine rebounds in Monday’s (Feb. 20) win over the Wildcats. The 21 points equaled Portyrata’s career high, established in last season’s meeting with NMU.

Freshman forward Betsy Morrison (Gahanna, OH/Lincoln) has shown steady progress during her first year at AU. She matched her career high with 12 points in AU’s win over Mercyhurst on Saturday (Feb. 18). Morrison then posted five points, seven rebounds and a game and career-high five assists in the contest against Northern Michigan.

Around the GLIAC
Just one of the eight GLIAC tournament berths remains unfilled entering the final week of the regular season. From the North Division, Grand Valley State, Michigan Tech, Ferris State and Lake Superior State have punched their postseason tickets. AU, Hillsdale and Gannon will all extend their season in the South Division. Wayne State, Saginaw Valley State and Findlay are the three contenders for the final position. WSU has the inside track for the spot and can wrap it up with a win over Hillsdale on Saturday (Feb. 25). Tournament play will begin with four quarterfinal contests at on-campus sites Tuesday evening (Feb. 28). AU, Hillsdale and Grand Valley State will be three of the host institutions.

GLIAC and National Stat Leaders
Rall is the GLIAC’s leading scorer (18.1 ppg.) and ranks ninth in free throw percentage (.805).

Graue ranks second in the conference in rebounds (8.1 rpg.), steals (2.6 spg.) and blocked shots (1.4) and is ninth in field goal percentage (.503) and 10th in free throw percentage (.802).

Portyrata’s field goal percentage (.631) is the second-best figure in the GLIAC and the fifth-best in the nation.

As a team, AU leads the conference in field goal percentage (.479) and ranks sixth in the nation. The Eagles are second in the GLIAC in rebounding margin (+7.1).

Inside the Paint

• Four members of the 2003-04 AU squad that qualified for the NCAA Division II tournament have eclipsed 1,000 career points—Bethune, Rall, Alanna Buurma and Jackie Mason. A fifth player, Isolina Brescia, finished with 999 points.
• Bethune has hit 73 career three-pointers. She needs three more connections from long-distance to move into third place on AU’s all-time list.
• A win on Saturday would give the Eagles their best GLIAC record since joining the conference in 1995-96, 13-4.

Ramsey on the Record

On the team’s performance over the weekend

“We played three games in three different venues against three different styles of teams in five days. As we have all season, we will take each situation and learn from it. It’s been an ongoing educational process on the court. That’s when coaching is at its finest, when you’re teaching on the court. When you have athletes who are both talented and coachable, as this team is, it makes it fun to do your job.”

“This is probably the best-case scenario for us. There is no pressure on us as far as our standing in the conference goes. We already wrapped up the South Division title. It’s going to be a tremendous basketball environment on Saturday and motivation will be minimal on my part. Our team is very motivated on its own for this game. Fortunately, our team has done a good job in big games like this during the season. I look at the Ferris State game [a 92-59 AU win] as an example of that.”