HOUGHTON, Mich. -- Michigan Tech tallied 15 steals and held Ashland to 36 percent shooting en route to a 69-43 women's basketball victory in the Huskies' home and Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference opener at the SDC Gym today. Amanda Sieja notched a game-high 18 points, while Catherine Rotter registered 15 points and a career-high seven assists, to help Tech improve to 4-1.

"We played an very good game today," said head coach John Barnes. "It's good to get the conference season started with a win."

Michigan Tech led, 32-23, at halftime behind 10 points from Sieja and 10 team steals. The Eagles committed 14 turnovers in the first half.

The Huskies opened the second stanza with a 13-2 run that made the score, 45-25, with 13:23 to play. Jenna Bartels layup five minutes later put the hosts on top by 21 and the gap never decreased the remainder of the game.

Sieja was eight-of-10 from the field and Sarah Magee scored 13 points on six-of-nine accuracy to help the Huskies shoot 48 percent (50 percent in the second half) as a team. AU hit just 29 percent of its attempts in the second half.

Rottier pulled down a team-high six rebounds. Lena Widman and Brooke Sirard were each credited with four steals.

Michigan Tech will return to the SDC Gym for a non-conference game vs. Northland on Monday (Dec. 5) at 7 p.m.