DALLAS, Texas – Coming into the 2023 NCAA Division II national championship game on Saturday (April 1) at the American Airlines Center, it had been 385 days since Ashland University's women's basketball team lost a game.
That streak will continue to grow longer.
The top-ranked Eagles completed a perfect 37-0 season and won their third D-II national title on Saturday, fending off No. 6-ranked Minnesota Duluth (32-4), 78-67. Ashland becomes the sixth D-II women's basketball program to win at least three national titles (2013, 2017, 2023).
Ashland's undefeated season is its third all-time (37-0 in 2016-17 and 2022-23, 31-0 in 2019-20), the most in D-II women's basketball history, and no other D-II women's basketball program history has 37 wins in an undefeated season – the Eagles have two such campaigns.
With Saturday's win, Ashland head coach
Kari Pickens becomes the first woman to win a D-II women's basketball national title as a player (2013), assistant coach (2017) and head coach (2023). Kim Mulkey is the only other woman to do it in NCAA women's hoops.
Ashland scored first, then the Bulldogs' Brooke Olson, the national Player of the Year, scored the next four points. At the game's first media timeout, Minnesota Duluth led 7-5, despite the Eagles keeping the Bulldogs to 2-of-8 from the field.
Senior forward
Annie Roshak gave Ashland the lead at 9-7 with back-to-back buckets. Roshak scored eight Eagle points in a row, and by the end of the game's first 10 minutes, they led 14-11 – while keeping Minnesota Duluth to 3-of-13 from the floor.
Roshak continued to attack the basket to start the second quarter, and her two free throws gave Ashland an 18-13 lead – and her 10 points individually in less than 13 minutes. When sophomore forward
Zoe Miller converted an old-fashioned 3-point play with 5:51 left until halftime, the Eagles had their first double-digit lead at 25-15.
The second-quarter media timeout came at the 4:43 mark, and Ashland led 28-15 thanks to a 10-0 run. The lead was extended to 38-17, and by the time both teams went to the locker room, the Eagles had a 40-22 advantage.
Roshak nearly was halfway to a triple-double at halftime, racking up 14 points, seven rebounds and four assists. Ashland had an impressive 22-12 rebounding advantage in the first 20 minutes, and shot 53.8 percent from the field in the first half, 69.2 percent in the second quarter.
Defensively, AU kept Minnesota Duluth to 28.6 percent from the floor and 0-of-7 from 3-point range in the first two quarters, and Olson had four points, three rebounds and three fouls in nine minutes.
The Bulldogs began to chip away at their deficit in the third quarter, but a Miller layup stopped the Minnesota Duluth momentum to keep AU ahead at 46-31. A corner trey from fifth-year guard
Hallie Heidemann made it a 49-33 game, which it was at the third-quarter media stoppage.
Another Heidemann triple put Ashland ahead 16 points at 54-38 late in the third, and with 10 minutes left to play, the Eagles led 59-40.
In the fourth quarter, the Bulldogs got to a 59-45 deficit, but Miller has the response again with a layup. Minnesota Duluth worked it to an 11-point deficit at 61-50, then junior guard
Savaya Brockington beat the shot clock with a floater to make it a 13-point contest.
The Bulldogs kept coming, working the Ashland lead down to nine at 63-54, but Miller's two charity tosses made it a double-digit lead again. Heidemann's triple put AU ahead 68-56, but Olson scored again to make it 68-58 at the 2:04 mark.
With the Eagles leading 68-61 with 1:27 to go, sophomore guard
Morgan Yoder stepped up and made two free throws to extend the lead back to nine. While the Bulldogs wouldn't go away, they never got as close as seven points down the stretch.
NOTABLES
- Roshak, the national tournament Most Outstanding Player, led the way with 20 points, 13 rebounds and four assists, Miller added 16 points, Smith came away with 10 points and 10 boards, and Heidemann finished with 11 points.
- Smith was named to the all-tournament team.
- The Eagles shot 51.0 percent from the field and made 21-of-25 (84.0 percent) from the free-throw line. They also kept the Bulldogs to 38.5 percent from the field and 4-of-19 from beyond the arc – despite Olson scoring a game-high 26 points.
- This was Ashland's fifth D-II national title game. The Eagles are 3-2 in national championship games, 13-2 in Elite Eights and 35-9 in the NCAA postseason overall.
- Ashland's current 37-game winning streak is tied for seventh-best in D-II women's basketball history, and second in program history to the D-II-record 73 wins in a row from Nov. 11, 2016-March 21, 2018).
- The Eagles become the first D-II women's basketball program to win three national titles with three different head coaches (Sue Ramsey in 2013, Robyn Fralick in 2017, and Pickens).
- Ashland is 114-3 all-time as the No. 1-ranked team in the country, and 296-18 all-time as a ranked team.
QUOTABLES
- "I genuinely believe this team was hand-picked," said Pickens. "We could not have done it without the selflessness of each and every person."
- "This team has been so incredibly special to me," Pickens said, "for their selflessness and how much they came together."
