MEN’S BASKETBALL

The HU men’s basketball team (2-1) was on the wrong end of an 83-80 decision Saturday afternoon to suffer its first loss of the year to Saint Xavier University at Platt Arena. It was the Cougars’ first win of the year as they improve to 1-2.

The first half was a defensive brawl as both teams leveraged for the advantage as evidenced by a low-scoring affair that featured three ties and ten lead changes. HU’s bigs in Tyler Arens and Caleb MIddlesworth accounted for over half of their team’s offense by combining for 19 points in a 36-33 halftime tilt that favored the visitors.

MIddlesworth was just getting started as he spent the final 20 minutes scoring 18 of his game-high and career-best 26 points. Arens finished with 19 points and a team-best eight rebounds. Nick Macon rounded out Huntington’s double-digit scoring with 12 points to go along with a game-high three steals.

HU forced nine Cougar turnovers in the second frame but the visitors made up for their mistakes by sizzling the nets at a clip of 58.6 percent (17-for-29) which included missing just three shots in the final eight minutes for the ultimate say.

Behind a trio of long balls from Middlesworth, Platt’s crew came out of break to grab the lead at 53-47 lead by the 15:13 mark. Three minutes later, Huntington’s advantage still stood at six points but by the midway point, things were knotted up for the ninth time at 63-63.

A Macon three put HU up one more time before Tyler Diehl cashed in on an old-fashioned three-point play to give his team a permanent lead around that eight-minute mark after which SXU didn’t miss a whole lot.

Saint Xavier’s advantage grew to as many as eight before Huntington made one last run. Arens knocked down his team’s seventh and final triple of the day with 90 seconds remaining to reduce the lead to five. HU would whittle it to two with a handful of ticks remaining but would get no closer as SXU finished by going 1-for-2 from the line to close out the scoring.

Chris Soczek topped five Cougars in double digits with 15 points. Jack Brody snagged a double double of 13 points and a game-best 14 rebounds. Jack Halverson and Diehl added 11 apiece while Jaelon Pygon chipped in ten.

The Foresters are back in action on Tuesday with a road trip to Aquinas.