Amid a team that did not reach its expectations, one player from the women’s basketball team shined brightly, earning this year’s Baker Orange player of the year for the 2005 – 2006 season.
This season, senior Ashley Ohlman, a 5-9 forward from Emporia, led the Wildcats in points (15.2), assists (3.38) and blocks (.72) per game. She also averaged 6.75 rebounds and blocked 1.6 shots a game.
“As far as the stats and awards and recognition that she received kind of speaks for itself from the standpoint of the type of year that she had,” coach Susan Decker said. “The thing that I was most proud of her for was her leadership ability and help in keeping the team together this year through a lot of adversity.”
All of Ohlman’s success this season resulted in an NAIA All-American honorable mention award, the first ever in the history of the women’s basketball program. Ohlman said it was a big surprise to be honored.
“That was something I was not expecting at all,” she said. “I felt that I had a pretty good year but I couldn’t have ever dreamt of being selected for that team.”
Ohlman was also named to the First team All-HAAC as well, shooting 45 percent from the floor and 72.6 percent from the free throw line. She also became the sixth to score over1,000 points in her career, doing so in just three years. Co-captain Molly Ediger said it is her ability in pressure situations that made her so good.
“She is just very aware of the game and situation,” Ediger said. “We knew to get her the ball. She knows basketball, and she works very hard.”
The biggest example would have to be her performance in the triple-overtime game against Evangel University in the first round of the HAAC tournament. Ohlman called it her most memorable moment as a Wildcat.
In that game, Baker and Evangel battled back and forth, with Evangel continually forcing extra overtimes. Baker finally seized the win when Ohlman rose to the occasion, scoring six of her 18 points in the third overtime to give Baker the 84-77 victory.
Other memorable moments this season for Ohlman include scoring 26 points in her final game at home against Lindenwood University, setting a new career high cashing in 28 points, including two crucial three-pointers towards the end of regulation.
She also made the game-winning basket and free-throw in the Wildcats 69-68 upset of No. 4 Tabor College on the road.
“She had some great opportunities, and she took advantage of those,” Decker said. “The things I’ll remember too, is that she could really shoot free-throws when we needed them in tight situations. She was usually the one we ran something to if we needed a bucket or someone to the free throw line.”
Ohlman played high school basketball at Emporia High School, earning First team All-Centennial League, third team All-State, and an honorable mention USA Today All-American honors her senior year.
After graduating high school in 2002, Ohlman chose to attend Emporia State University after graduation but was unhappy and transferred to Baker her sophomore year, where she had an immediate impact.
“I was just hoping to come in and give them some good minutes,” Ohlman said. “I wasn’t coming in with the idea of being the star.”
That season, she scored 9.2 points per game off the bench.
Decker said it was one of the easiest recruiting processes she had ever been through because Ohlman approached Decker to play at Baker.
“The recruiting process for me was one of the easier recruits I’ve been able to bring in here,” Decker said. “It was a situation where she wanted to transfer, and I think Baker was a good fit for her.”
Throughout her playing career, Ohlman said it was the relationships with coaches and players that helped her succeed, noting that without solid relationships, winning is not a viable option.
In her 97 career games at Baker, Ohlman averaged 11.5 points, 5.3 rebounds a game, while shooting 42.5 percent from the field.