WOMEN’S BASKETBALL

Hard-nosed defense propelled the Huntington women’s basketball team to a 57-41 win over Spring Arbor University Saturday afternoon at SAU Fieldhouse. The W snaps a four-game losing skid as the Foresters improve to 10-7 overall, 3-3 in league play.

The third quarter proved to be the cornerstone to HU’s win as they gave up just six points while six different Foresters put points on the board to outscore their hosts by nine. Huntington’s five-point halftime lead turned into a 44-30 advantage heading into the final quarter where they kept the Cougars at bay for the 16-point win.

Culler’s crew has outscored their opponents by double digits in seven of their ten wins. Today’s win also marks the fifth time this season HU has held their opponents to less than 45 points.

The Cougars (7-10, 1-5) were forced to play catchup most of the afternoon with the exception of the first quarter where neither team could get much going. It was an 8-8 draw after the first ten minutes with SAU’s only advantages coming when Autumn Goggin, a recent member of Spring Arbor’s 1,000 point club, scored her only bucket of the game at the 3:02 mark to put her team up 6-4.

Gabby Barnett gave the hosts their only other advantage, 8-6, two minutes later when she scored down low before Casey Morton closed out the quarter by converting a pair of free tosses for the 8-8 tie. Despite lamenting a handful of misses from point blank range, the Foresters spent the next ten minutes building their permanent lead to take a 29-24 advantage into the break.

Morton scored nine of her game-high and season-tying 13 points in the first frame. Brooke Saylor added 12 points and a game-best 14 rebounds. She also posted two blocks and two steals for the Foresters.

Erin Mohr also did a little bit of everything for her team. In addition to pouring in a career-tying 12 points, the 5-9 forward also handed out three assists and tallied just as many steals. Sam Hammel helped Saylor control the boards by pulling down nine rebounds in addition to recording eight points, three steals, two assists and two blocks.

Rachel Nelson collected 12 points and six rebounds to pace Spring Arbor. Anne Marie Wright added ten points as SAU’s only other double-digit scorer.

As a team, Huntington shot 38.2 percent from the field (21-for-55) while limiting the Cougars to 34.1 percent (15-for-44). HU also dominated the glass, 38-28, and committed 13 TOs to SAU’s 17.

Today’s win is Huntington’s fourth straight over the Cougars while Coach Culler’s all-time record against Spring Arbor stands at 39-14. Next up for HU is a short trip to Fort Wayne on Wednesday to take on #20 Saint Francis at 7:00 p.m.