WOMEN’S BASKETBALL

Up against one of the nation’s best in #12 IU East, the HU women’s basketball team held a lead through the opening two and a half quarters before the Red Wolves’ potent offense kicked in to outscore the Foresters by 15 in the final 15 minutes to turn their five-point deficit in to a 12-point win at 76-64.

The Red Wolves pour in 79 points per outing to rank 14th in the NAIA in scoring.

The loss is Huntington’s second straight and their fourth loss in the last five outings as they drop to 9-5 on the year. For IU East, Thursday night’s win in Platt Arena snaps a four-game losing skid as they improve to 9-6 overall.

The Foresters stretched their defense to full court and the payoff was impressive through the opening twenty minutes as they forced the Red Wolves into 13 miscues on the way to limiting their visitors to just 31 points. Culler’s crew enjoyed the lead throughout the entire first half, which included a 15-5 start to the game, before settling for a 34-31 advantage heading into intermission.

Offensively, Huntington relied on the guard tandem of Maddie Richer and Brooke Yoder as each tossed in ten points. Both sharp shooters knocked down a pair of long balls while scoring twice on nifty moves in the lane to keep IU East’s defense guessing.

The second period had a different feel as IU East knotted things up at 36-36 just over a minute into the third. Thanks to five points from Hailey Krewald, HU bounced back to grow the lead back to two possessions, 45-40, by the midway point of the quarter but the momentum gradually began to shift after that.

Sarah Cook and Mackenzie Campbell combined to score eight of the game’s next ten points to give the visitors their first lead of the evening at 48-47 with 3:32 left in the frame. HU rallied to reclaim a brief lead, 53-52, two minutes into the fourth quarter.

Two ties and 90 seconds later, Tia King dropped in her fifth triple of the night to give the Red Wolves a permanent advantage of 60-57 as they would go on to outscore their hosts 16-7 the rest of the way to hand HU just their second double digit loss of the year.

Sarah Fryman scored 12 of her 18 team-high points in the second half. Richer finished with 12 points and a game-best five assists. Krewald chipped in 11 points and six boards while Yoder finished with ten points. Brooke Saylor pulled down a game-tying seven rebounds.

King tossed in a game-best 21 points. Campbell collected 16 points and seven boards. Kristen Miller and Sarah Cook tallied 11 and ten points respectively.

Huntington shots 41.4 percent from the field (24-for-58) while committing 17 turnovers. The Red Wolves finished 50.0 percent from the floor (28-for-58) and turned over the ball just twice in the final twenty minutes to finish with 15 blunders. Rebounding was a wash with IU East holding a slight 32-31 advantage.

HU takes to the hardwood against tomorrow to host Cincinnati Christian at 1:00 p.m.