San Antonio, Texas - The Dowling College
women's basketball ended their incredible run this evening in San
Antonio, falling to the No. 2 Ashland University Eagles, 71-56, in
the NCAA Division II National Championship game. The Golden
Lions finish their season at 30-4 and the Eagle end 37-1.
All-Tournament team members senior Danielle Wilson and Connie
Simmons led the Golden Lions with 15 and 13 points
respectively.
The Golden Lions were challenged early in the first half with
the Eagles coming out to a 7-0 start through the first two minutes
of play. Ashland pushed the lead to double figures, 14-3,
after eight unanswered with just under 14 minutes on the clock.
Simmons' layup and Rekik Worku's triple cut the lead to eight,
20-12, but an 11-1 Eagle run gave them their largest lead of the
half 31-13 with less five on the clock. The Golden Lions headed
into the half trailing 38-25. Simmons led the Golden Lions at the
half with six points.
For Ashland, Woods had a high of 12 points with Daugherty adding 10 with 7 rebounds. The Eagles ended the half shooting 45.5% from the field.
Dowling came out the break with back to back buckets from Gamble
and Wilson, and then found themselves back within single digits
after a triple from Koppl for the first time since the 11 minute
mark in the first half, 43-34. But with the Eagles shooting
over 60% through the first 10 minutes, the Golden Lions trailed by
16, 56-40, with 9:49 remaining. Ashland continued to push and
at the 8:13 mark, the Eagles grabbed their largest lead of 19 on a
couple of occasions with the latest coming after two free throws
from Noelle Yoder with just over a minute remaining. After
falling in the final game last season, the Eagles captured the 2013
National Championship.
Leading the Eagles was the NCAA Elite Eight Most Outstanding
Player, Kari Daugherty with a double-double of 26 points and 12
rebounds. Taylor Woods finished with 20 points.
Dowling won it's first ever NCAA Tournament game this season and
was the first ECC team to reach the National Championship game. In
their historic run, the Golden Lions won 15 consecutive games and
won 30 games overall, the most ever in program history. In other
program firsts, Dowling ranked as high as No. 10 in the nation, and
was ranked first in scoring defense and opponents points per
game.
Provided by the Dowling Sports Information Department.
