HAMMOND, Ind. – The Purdue Northwest men's basketball team split the weekend series with Ashland following Saturday's 91-82 setback to the Eagles inside the Fitness & Recreation Center.

PNW moved to 6-7 (6-7 GLIAC) following the loss while AU improved to 8-6 (8-5 GLIAC).

"Ashland won the glass and the paint, and that's been our best strength this season," PNW head coach Boomer Roberts said. "We struggled to get stops in second half again, so we need to keep working to fix that. Huge week ahead for our group, and thankful to be able to get at it again."

Gregory Boyle led four PNW players in double digits with 20 points and four assists. Vincent Miszkiewicz nearly missed a double-double with 11 points and nine rebounds, while Anthony Irvin and Xavier Allison chipped in with 11 and 10 points off the bench, respectively.

Ashland's duo of Brandon Haraway and Aaron Thompson carried the visitors with a combined total of 56 points between the two. Haraway finished with 29, seven rebounds and five assists. Thompson posted a double-double with 27 points, 13 rebounds and six steals.

PNW raced out to a 6-1 lead following three straight baskets to open the game by Mikell Cooper, Miszkiewicz and Jyrus Freels. The Pride stayed in front until the 13:58 mark of the first half when Haraway put the visitors ahead on a pair of free throws. PNW got within three in the second half but never led again in the contest.

The Eagles took advantage of a physical contest and reached the bonus with 11:23 in the opening half, early fouls and turnovers by the Pride helped the visitors string together a 14-4 run. Ashland led by as much as 10 in the first stanza, but PNW would make a run before halftime.

Boyle's three at the 7:22 mark snapped a four-minute scoring drought by the Pride, while a Logan Phillips layup at the halftime buzzer trimmed the deficit to four at intermission, 36-32.

Ashland opened the second half with a furious 8-2 run and went back in front by 10 following a Thompson fastbreak layup, which forced an early PNW timeout with 17:30 left.

The Pride settled down and kept within striking distance thanks to a nice stretch from the freshman Irvin off the bench. Irvin drained back-to-back threes and scored eight straight points to make it a three-point game, 57-54, with 10:42 remaining.

However, the Eagles had an answer each time the Pride made an attempt at a scoring run.

A Logan Phillips layup on a backdoor cut made it 66-63 with seven minutes left, and then Allison's three made it 82-77 with under two minutes, but Haraway kept the Eagles in front with another trey.

Both teams shot near 50% from the field and over 80% at the free-throw line in a very even matchup, as the Eagles outpaced the Pride 55-50 in a high-scoring second half.

PNW fell victim to 17 turnovers, and 13 steals, which translated to 22 points on the other end for Ashland.

NEXT UP
PNW travels to Parkside Tuesday night for a 7 p.m. CST tipoff in Kenosha, Wisconsin.