WOMEN’S BASKETBALL

The Huntington women’s basketball team collected its fourth consecutive win Saturday night at Platt Arena with a 78-61 decision over Judson (2-3). With this W, the Foresters improve to 4-1.

Culler’s crew did a lot of things well to continue their trend of beating opponents by double digits. HU connected on a season-best 51.9 percent of their field goal attempts (27-for-52) which included knocking down eight from downtown. They also got to the line 22 times and forced their visitors to cough up the ball 21 times.

While the Eagles held just two leads, both in the first quarter, things remained close until a run just before halftime stretched the Foresters’ advantage to 13 points at 38-25. Freshman Erica Zook stepped up big for her team in the opening 20 minutes to score ten of her career-best 14 points.

The rookie was a perfect 4-for-4 from the field in the first half, two of which were long balls with her second coming in the final two minutes of the second quarter during HU’s 7-0 spurt.

Another newbie in Sara Doi also posted career numbers. After tossing in seven first half points, the Granger native scored 12 after break to finish with a game-high 19 points, the best output of her young career. She also registered four rebounds, three steals and two assists.

Sarah Fryman and Maddie Richer each added 14 points for the Foresters. Brooke Saylor was effective on both ends of the floor by registering eight points, a team-high six rebounds and a game-best four steals.

The third quarter proved HU’s most dominant ten-minute segment as they outscored their visitors 22-11 for a 24-point cushion heading into the fourth. The Eagles, however, weren’t going down without a fight as they shredded the lead to a mere ten points at 71-61 with 1:44 to go.

Zook calmly sank a pair of freebies to get her team back on track and it was all Huntington after that as they cashed in on five more free throws to close out the contest on a 7-0 run.

HU hits the road on Tuesday to face #RV Rochester at 7:00 p.m.