WOMEN’S BASKETBALL

The #9 Trojans of Taylor University put on a shooting clinic inside Odle Arena Tuesday night to cruise past the #RV Huntington women’s basketball team 88-60 in Crossroads League action.

TU connected on nine of their first ten triples on the way to tying their program record for most threes in a game with 19. The Trojans sizzled the nets from downtown at a clip of 52.8 percent (19-for-36) to finish with a higher percentage from deep than from two-point land where they went 8-for-20 for 40.0 percent.

Culler’s crew was doomed from the start as their hosts seized a ten-point advantage within the opening five minutes and never looked back. Most of the damage was done in the first quarter as the score read 33-9 compliments of Becca Buchs who buried five of her eight long balls in the opening ten minutes.

It was a 50-28 difference by halftime and it looked like HU might get something going after intermission as they rattled off the first six points of the second half to trim it to 16 at 50-34. But as was the case all night, the Trojans cashed in from deep by canning a pair of treys within a 90-second span to quickly squelch any hope the Foresters had of making it a game.

The rest of the contest came and went without much excitement as Taylor breezed to its 12th straight win. The Trojans are 20-4 on the year, 11-2 in league play. They are currently tied with Marian for the top spot.

Kendall Bradbury, this week’s NAIA National Player of the Week, topped all scorers with 24 points to go along with a team-high nine rebounds. Buchs finished with 23 points while her sister Abby scored 15. Lauren James tossed in ten to round out TU’s double digit scoring.

Brooke Saylor added another double double to her resume by collecting a game-best 14 rebounds, which included six offensive boards, and ten points. The 5-11 forward has eight double doubles this season, 26 in her career. Sam Hammel netted ten points while Erin Mohr and Sarah Fryman each registered eight.

The loss, HU’s worst of the year, drops them to 14-10 overall, 7-6 in league play. With five regular season games remaining, Huntington is tied for fifth in the CL standings.

Next up for Culler and crew is their 11th annual Pink Out on Saturday. They will tip-off at 1:00 p.m. against Mount Vernon.