MEN’S BASKETBALL

The #8 Wildcats of Indiana Wesleyan University got out to an early lead Saturday afternoon at Luckey Arena and built on their advantage throughout the afternoon to enjoy a 100-73 win over the HU men’s basketball team. The W avenges an 87-84 loss to the Foresters dating back to December 2.

The loss drops Platt’s crew to 10-16 overall, 6-8 in league play. With four regular season games remaining, Huntington is tied with Taylor for 7th in the conference standings just two games behind 3rd place Bethel.

Tyler Arens and Zac Owens came off the bench to spearhead Huntington’s offense. Arens posted a team-high 21 points and five boards. Owens netted a career-best 17 points on 7-for-9 shooting which included two treys while Konner Platt added 11 points. Devon Merder cleaned up glass for HU with 11 rebounds.

Three Wildcats accounted for two-thirds of the hosts’ offense with Canaan Coffey topping all scorers with 22 points. Evan Maxwell dominated the paint with 21 points while Kyle Mangas tossed in 20. Ben Carlson earned the game’s only double double with 12 points and 11 boards.

IWU has established themselves as one of the best in the business offensively as they entered the day ranked #2 nationally in field goal percentage (52.3 percent) and 16th in scoring (87.6). On this given day, they more than backed up their rankings by shooting 58.3 percent (35-for-60) and scoring over the century mark for the third time this year.

The Foresters shot the ball well too. Platt’s crew finished 51.7 percent (30-for-58) but the major discrepancy came at the charity stripe where the Wildcats connected on 21 of their 29 attempts while HU struggled by going 5-for-15.

Minus a 6-6 tie early in the contest, Wesleyan held a lead from opening tip. The Foresters kept their hosts in sight until Coffey’s long ball with just under six minutes to go in the first half pushed IWU’s lead to 32-22. It proved to be a double-digit advantage that would stand the test of time except for a brief moment just before halftime.

The scoreboard read 45-33 by intermission and unfortunately, aside from Arens’ triple that cut it to 11 at 51-40 three minutes into the second half, the Wildcats gradually pulled away as they game wore on for the skewed win.

It doesn’t get any easier for Huntington as they host #3 Saint Francis on Tuesday at 7:00 p.m.