WOMEN’S BASKETBALL

The #RV HU women’s basketball team took one on the chin Saturday afternoon by suffering a 66-50 loss to #5 Marian University (26-2, 15-1). With two regular season contests remaining, the race to the finish line continues as today’s loss puts the Foresters in a tie for fourth with Grace.

It was a sluggish first half that did the visitors in. The two-time defending national champions can turn the smallest of advantage into huge gain and that’s exactly what happened through the opening twenty minutes. MU converted five offensive rebounds into nine points and outsprinted their visitors after misses for eight easy points – the exact difference at intermission.

Despite being down 36-20 heading into the third quarter, Huntington didn’t back down from the challenge. But things got worse before they got better as the Knights doubled up HU 48-24 by the 5:50 mark. The final six minutes saw six different Foresters put points on the board and the pay-off was impressive as HU outscored their hosts 18-3 the rest of the quarter to trim the deficit to single digits at 51-42.

Sarah Fryman’s second triple of the day early in the fourth made for an eight-point game at 53-45 but it’s as close as things would get as HU managed just five points the rest of the way to make for their worst loss of the year.

Both teams finished the second period with 30 points. Fryman collected 12 points and four assists to lead HU. Brooke Saylor tossed in 11 points and grabbed nine rebounds. She also had a pair of assists, steals and blocks.

Hailey Krewald netted ten points and grabbed nine boards to tie Saylor for game-high rebounding honors.

The Foresters shot 38.8 percent from the field (19-for-49) while the Knights posted a shooting percentage of .444 (28-for-63). Despite a hard fought, physical game, the two teams combined to shoot just 12 free throws with HU going 6-for-7 and Marian finishing 4-for-5.

Kellie Kirkhoff topped all scorers with 19 points. Dejah Cyrus added 18 points. Joana Soeiro handed out a game-best 11 dimes to go along with six points, six rebounds and four steals.

HU (16-11, 9-7) heads to #16 Taylor on Wednesday for a 7:30 p.m. tip-off with the Trojans.