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AU Women’s
Basketball Ousts Wayne State, 88-79, in GLIAC Tournament
Quarterfinal |
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By Paul Carmany, AU Sports Information For a while in Tuesday night’s (Feb. 28) Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (GLIAC) Tournament quarterfinal game, it seemed as if “3” was going to be an unlucky number for the Ashland University women’s basketball team. Wayne State connected on 11 three-pointers and hung close to the favored Eagles all evening at Kates Gymnasium. In the end, though, AU used three big scorers (Catherine Portyrata, DeAndria Bethune and Lynsey Warren) to defeat the Warriors for the third time this season, 88-79. The victory enabled Ashland to advance to the conference tournament semifinals for the third time and gave the Eagles their third consecutive 20-win season. Ashland, the GLIAC South Division champion, improved to 20-9 with its fourth straight victory. Wayne State’s season ends at 10-17. It was Bethune who opened the evening’s scoring on Ashland’s first possession, hitting one of the Eagles’ two three-pointers of the evening. It turned out that AU would never relinquish the lead, but the Warriors would make a number of runs at the white-clad home team. Ashland led by 11, 37-26, after Lisa Graue hit a jumper 4:38 before halftime. WSU then went on a 12-3 run capped off by a Kristen Rogers three-pointer. That bucket cut the AU advantage to 40-38 with 22 seconds left in the opening session. Amber Rall hit a pair of free throws with 8 seconds remaining to produce the halftime score, 42-38. The Eagles shot 53.1 percent from the field in the first half, scored 26 points in the paint and received 15 points from Portyrata in her 14 minutes of work. However, they could not pull away from the Warriors, who collected eight offensive rebounds and made five shots from long distance. Four of those connections came courtesy of Rogers, who ended the half with 14 markers. Whatever AU head coach Sue Ramsey said during her halftime speech must have worked, as the Eagles came out firing in the second half. AU outscored the visitors, 11-3, in the first 6:50 of the half. Bethune’s free throw at the 13:10 mark gave Ashland a 53-41 advantage. For the rest of the game, Ashland’s lead hovered between eight and 14 points. The Warriors made six more three-pointers in the second half and pulled down 10 more offensive boards. AU was able to hold WSU off by sinking 19-of-23 second-half free throws and shooting 56.5 percent from the floor. On the evening, the Eagles made 54.5 percent of their field goal attempts. Portyrata finished the game with a career-high 24 points, making 10-of-14 field goals. The junior also pulled down nine rebounds. Bethune scored a season-best 19 points, 14 of which came after halftime. Warren totaled 18 points and ended the season with a 19.3 ppg., scoring average against the Warriors. Betsy Morrison had a fine, all-around performance, ending up with seven points, six rebounds, six assists and three steals. Coach Gloria Bradley’s Warriors had three players do most of the scoring. Rogers ended her career with a 21-point, 7-assist, 5-rebound performance. Chastidy Miller scored 15 of her 21 points in the second half. Cherita Smith added 20 points, five rebounds and three blocked shots. The Eagles will travel to Grand Valley State for Friday and Saturday’s (March 3-4) GLIAC Final Four. Ashland will meet Lake Superior State (21-6) at 1 p.m. Friday afternoon. The Lakers upset Michigan Tech, 64-50, tonight. Friday’s second semifinal will be a matchup between the host GVSU Lakers (25-3) and Gannon (14-14) at 6 p.m. |