WOMEN’S BASKETBALL

Some days a win is best described as a total team win and that was the case Saturday afternoon at Platt Arena where the HU women’s basketball team toppled #16 Indiana Wesleyan 67-59. It was Wildcats’ second loss in conference play as they drop to 13-7 overall, 6-2 in CL action.

For Culler and crew, it was their third straight win and snapped a two-game win streak IWU held over them. HU is now 12-7 overall, 5-3 in league play.

Defensively, the Foresters made their visitors uncomfortable all day. The Wildcats are one of the best shooting teams in the nation as documented by their #2 ranking in field goal percentage (.479) and #4 ranking in 3-point field goal percentage (.379). But on this given afternoon, HU held them to just 38.6 percent from the field which included going 3-for-21 from deep for 14.3 percent.

Huntington also forced Wesleyan into 16 turnovers, 11 of which were steals behind Brooke Saylor’s four, which they converted for 20 points. Dayton Groninger and Nicole Ignasiak were the only two Wildcats to crack double figures with 19 and 13 points respectively. When all was said and done, HU held an IWU offense, ranked 9th nationally in scoring, nearly 20 points below their season average.

Offensively for the Foresters, Sarah Fryman led the charge with 22 points which included going a perfect 7-for-7 from the line. Erin Mohr came up with the biggest game of her career by pouring in 18 points on 8-for-11 shooting. She also swiped two steals. Sam Hammel added seven points to go along with a team-best eight rebounds and three dimes. Casey Morton came off the bench to also collect seven points.

The lead was up for grabs through the first five minutes as the advantage swapped back and forth five times after which the hosts camped out on top except for a brief stint late in the first quarter. IWU’s fleeting advantage was a 14-13 edge that Mohr quickly erased with a pair of jumpers to spur a 6-0 run to close out the quarter for a 19-14 HU tilt.

Mohr finished the quarter with eight points and added another five in the second to help her team widen the gap to nine by intermission. Fryman was also a main cog for HU in the opening twenty minutes as she dropped in 12 points. Together the twosome accounted for all but eight of Huntington’s first half points for a 33-24 disparity by the midway point.

Culler’s squad came out of the locker room like gangbusters to score on four of their first five possessions to up their lead to 13 at 41-28 by the 7:22 mark which proved the day’s largest disparity. As one would expect from the Wildcats, they weren’t going down without a fight. Over the next four minutes, they scratched and clawed back to within six, 49-43.

But just like the first quarter, HU pieced together a mini run to close out the frame capped off with a huge buzzer-beating three by Maddie Richer for an 11-point difference of 54-43 heading into the final ten minutes.

A slow start to the fourth saw Huntington get stuck on 54 for the first four minutes which allowed Whaley’s clan to whittle the lead to just four at 54-50.

Fryman finally got her team back on track when she muscled her way down low at the 6:14 mark but it was Morton’s three 90 seconds later that took the wind out of IWU’s sails. After a missed three, the Wildcats applied a full court press that Hammel picked apart to find a wide open Mohr under the basket for an easy lay-in and nine-point lead of 61-52.

The final four minutes saw the Foresters enjoy a three-possession lead for all but 20 seconds on the way to wrapping up the upset.

It doesn’t get any easier for HU as next up is a trip to Indianapolis on Wednesday to take on #8 Marian at 7:00 p.m.