WOMEN’S BASKETBALL

The #RV HU women’s basketball team found a way to win Friday night of the Huntington University Classic by squeaking out a 66-64 W over IU Kokomo at Platt Arena.

Freshman Erica Zook, in her first collegiate start, had a quiet first half but her play was anything but quiet after intermission. The rookie guard scored six of her team’s first eight points in the third quarter before turning into a one-person wrecking crew in the latter half of the fourth to will her team to its sixth straight victory.

With just over four minutes to go, the Foresters found themselves on the wrong end of a seven-point disparity, 61-54, but that was about to change thanks to Zook’s heroics. She started the comeback by draining a triple from the top of the key at the 4:18 mark to trim the lead to four at 61-57.

The two teams traded buckets over the next two minutes before Zook spotted up again, this time in the corner, for a second long ball. It was déjà vu 60 seconds later as she tickled the twine from the same spot to give her team its first lead of the fourth at 65-63 with :36 seconds to go.

The Cougars entered the evening averaging 14 offensive boards so it wasn’t too surprising when they tracked down two of their own missed shots on the ensuing possession before the Foresters sent Abby Scott to the line where she went 1-for-2 to close the gap to one at 65-64.

Brooke Saylor extended the lead back to two after a trip to the charity stripe with eight seconds left and the rest is history as they say as HU forced a Cougar turnover with 0.2 seconds to seal the deal.

Zook finished with a career-best 15 points, all in the second half, to top all scorers. Several other Foresters turned in big numbers. Erin Mohr used her 5-10 frame to knock down several critical pull-up jumpers in the lane on her way to scoring 13 points. She also grabbed five rebounds.

Cindy In’t Groen came off the bench to toss in a career-best ten points with eight of those points coming in the second quarter. She finished 3-for-4 from the floor while going a perfect 4-for-4 from the line.

For the third time this season, Saylor reached double-digit rebounds by ripping down a game-high 13 caroms, four of which were of the offensive variety. She also posted six points, four blocks and three steals.

Several notable stats speak to Huntington’s win. After committing seven turnovers in the opening twenty minutes, the Foresters made just three mistakes in the second half.

HU’s defense is also worth mentioning. After the hot-handed Cougars went 10-for-13 from the field in the first quarter, Culler’s crew settled in defensively to limit their visitors to just 14 field goals on 31.8 percent shooting the rest of the way.

The contest was the first time these two squads have met and definitely didn’t disappoint as the night featured eight ties and ten lead changes. With this win, HU improves to 6-1 while IU Kokomo drops to 2-2 on the year.

The Foresters hit the hardwood again tomorrow at 3:00 p.m. to face IU Southeast.