Albin led the Eagles with 19 points, six rebounds, four assists and three steals, all team-highs. Fellow freshmen Hayley Spivey and Ellen Gray added 15 points apiece. Tuesday's game was another step in the development of the large freshman class that has been playing a lot of minutes.
"If you look back to the beginning of the season, we couldn't run plays," Spivey said. "We've transformed 100 percent, and I'm really confident going into the (KIAC) tournament, and I think we have a huge chance of going into the championship game."
Asbury led 60-57 with 13 seconds left, when KCU's Tara Weddle hit a 3-pointer from the right side to tie it up at 60 apiece. Albin took the inbounds passed and raced coast to coast and was fouled going for a contested layup.
"We feel like if we can just get the ball in (Albin's) hands late, good things are going to happen," Flener said.
After she hit her free throws, the long pass was tipped out of bounds by Anna Stephenson with 2.5 seconds remaining on the clock. The pass came in on the right side to Weddle, who lobbed it just left of the basket to Kelsie Thrasher. Thrasher had a chance for a tip-in to tie it at the buzzer, but the attempt was short.
"Our goal was to switch every screen so we could defend the inbounds, then defend the shooter," Flener said. "We didn't get the first screen switched, then we stood around when (Weddle) caught it. Ended up, two people ran at it, and they lobbed it back in, and I thought we were in overtime."
The Eagles trailed by as many as seven in the second half, but scratched back with 52 percent shooting in the second half while holding the Lady Knights to under 32 percent.
"We didn't let them get far away," Flener said. "We went into halftime and regrouped a little bit. We couldn't quite get baskets early in the second half and got down 41-34, but from that point forward we got more efficient offensively, and we got better defensively in the half court."
The win marked the second year in a row that Asbury has beaten KCU (22-5), one of the most successful NCCAA women's programs in the state. It snapped a 13-game win streak for the Lady Knights.
"I think it kind of lets us know that we can get on that map, too, in Kentucky basketball," Flener said. "They're the premier Christian college basketball rival in the state of Kentucky, and we'd love to be there."
"That's part of the reason that I wanted to come here because I knew that we were getting a big group of freshmen, and it feels like I'm not just coming in as one or two freshmen," Spivey said. "I'm coming in with a big freshman class, and we're starting something new. We're starting a new tradition, and it makes you feel like you're part of a team."
Asbury's last home game will be Thursday against Midway, when the Eagles will be honoring Stephenson on Senior Night. Tip-off is scheduled for 6 p.m.
